SILENT READING, READERS THEATRE AND VIDEO .../67531/metadc501271/...3 79AI8dd A COMPARISON OF THREE TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING LITERATURE: SILENT READING, READERS THEATRE AND VIDEO-TAPE

3 79AI8dd

A COMPARISON OF THREE TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING LITERATURE:

SILENT READING, READERS THEATRE AND

VIDEO-TAPE READERS THEATRE

DISSERTATION

Presented to the Graduate Council of the

North Texas State University in Partial

Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of

DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

By

Sally Ann Roden, B. S., M. S.

Denton, Texas

August, 1978

Roden, Sally Ann, A Comparison of Three Techniques of

Teaching Literature: Silent Reading, Readers Theatre and

Video-Tape Readers Theatre. Doctor of Education (College

Teaching), August, 1978, 218 pp., 38 tables, bibliography,

45 titles.

The problem of this study was a comparison of the re-

sponses of students to three techniques of teaching literature.

From this comparison, the most effective technique of teaching

literature was identified. The three techniques selected for

the study were silent reading, Readers Theatre, and video-

tape Readers Theatre. These three techniques were compared

on achievement and attitude response. Effectiveness of each

technique was examined by noting each grade level and the

pooled-technique effectiveness scores. Also, black and white

video-tape scores were examined in comparison to scores from

the presentation of color video-tape.

The experimental group for this study consisted of four

junior and four senior regular English classes from one sub-

urban high school and one class of freshmen from one four-year

state university. A total of 302 subjects were involved in

the study. Complete data were obtained for 139 of the sub-

jects for the three techniques, and complete data were obtained

for forty-eight subjects for the color video-tape technique.

Seven hypotheses were formulated to fulfill the purposes

of this study. The first six hypotheses were tested to determine

significance by finding the mean and standard deviation of

all grade-level scores for each technique. The pooling of

technique scores was adequate, for it was the specific tech-

nique of presentation that was being compared in each instance.

Hypothesis seven was tested by comparing pooled grade-level

technique mean and standard deviation scores of black and white

video-tape to pooled scores of color video-tape. Each hypo-

thesis was tested in the null form by analysis of variance.

If the F value of the analysis of variance was significant,

the Scheffe F test was used for the first six hypotheses to

determine where the differences occurred.

The analysis of data revealed that Readers Theatre re-

sulted in significantly higher mean scores on attitude-scale

tests than either of the other two techniques. The teaching

technique of silent reading produced significantly higher

mean comprehension scores than did either Readers Theatre or

black and white video-tape, although Readers Theatre resulted

in higher mean comprehension scores than did black and white

video-tape. Silent reading produced a higher mean score than

did black and white video-tape on the attitude-scale tests.

Since silent reading produced significantly higher scores

on comprehension of literature, it was concluded that silent

reading is the most effective method for achieving comprehen-

sion. However, it was also concluded that Readers Theatre is

of importance in the domain of attitude and affect. This study

isolated Readers Theatre as the most effective teaching tech-

nique for attitude response toward literature.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES.......................

Chapter

I. INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . .

Statement of the ProblemPurpose of the StudyHypothesesBackground of the StudySignificance of the StudyDefinition of TermsInstrumentsPopulationSelection of the SampleResearch DesignControl ProceduresCriterion for Selection ofProcedures for Analysis of

1

StoriesData

II. HISTORY AND RELATED LITERATURE..... ....

Influence of the GreeksThe Roman EraAdvent of ChristianityMedieval PeriodHumanismThe English LanguageElocutionAge of ReasonAmerican ContributionScientific ApproachMental ProcessesCurrent TrendsSummary

III. METHODS AND PROCEDURES... .........

Description of SubjectsDescription of the InstrumentsProcedures for Collecting DataProcedures for Analysis of Data

IV. PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

iii

Pagev

21

47

61

. . ." ." .s ." ." ."

.0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 ." ."

Chapter

V. SUMMARY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS,RECOMMENDATIONS, AND OBSERVATIONS . . . . . . 96

SummaryFindingsConclusionsImplicationsRecommendations f or Further StudyObservations

APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

BIBLIOGRAPHY.. . . . .... ... . ..... .... 215

iv

Page

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

I. Order of Technique Used in Presentation ofthe Short Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

II. Schedule for Presentation to High SchoolJunior and Senior Classes . . . . . . . . 53

III. Schedule for Study According to High SchoolPeriods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

IV. Schedule for Presentation to UniversityClasses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

V. Number of Observations, Means and StandardDeviations for the Achievement Tests. . . 63

VI. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Achieve-ment Tests, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

VII. Summary of Scheffe F Test for AchievementTests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

VIII. Number of Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations for Attitude-Reponse Scales. . 66

IX. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Attitude-

Response Tests.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

X. Summary of Scheffe F Test for AttitudeResponse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

XI. Number of Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations for Retention-AchievementTests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

XII. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Retention-Achievement Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

XIII. Summary of Scheffe F Test for Retention-Achievement Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

XIV. Number of Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations for Retention-Attitude ResponseScales.. . ..... ..... . ....... 70

V

Table Page

XV. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Retention-Attitude Response Scales . . . . . . . . . 71

XVI. Summary of Scheffe F Test for Retention-Attitude Response Scales . . . . . . . . . 71

XVII. Number of Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations for Video Achievement Tests . . 72

XVIII. Summary of Analysis of Variance of Video-Tape Achievement Tests . . . . . . . . . . 73

XIX. Number of Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations for Video-Attitude ScaleTests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

XX. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Attitude-Scale Tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

XXI. Number of Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations of Video-Retention AchievementTests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

XXII. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Video-Retention Achievement Tests... . . . . . . 75

XXIII. Number of Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations for Video-Retention Attitude-Scale Tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

XXIV. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Video-Retention Attitude-Scale Tests . . . . . . 76

XXV. Summary of Mean Difference on Achievement,Attitude, and Retention Tests. . . . . . . 77

XXVI. Summary of Analysis of Variance of the Dif-ference of Means . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

XXVII. Summary of Scheffe F Test Mean Difference . . 79

XXVIII. Mean Difference Option Black and White vs.Color Video-Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

XXIX. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Video-Tape Black and White and Color Mean Dif-ference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

XXX. Summary of Technique, Grade, Variable, Numberof Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

vi

Table Page

XXXI. Summary of Technique, Sex, Variable, Numberof Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

XXXII. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Techniqueand Variable of Silent Reading by Sex. . . 87

XXXIII. Summary of Technique, Sex, Variable, Numberof Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

XXXIV. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Techniqueand Variable by Sex. . . . . . . . . . . . 89

XXXV. Summary of Technique, Sex, Variable, Numberof Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

XXXVI. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Techniqueand Variable by Sex. . . . . . . . . . . . 91

XXXVII. Summary of Technique, Sex, Variable, Numberof Observations, Means, and StandardDeviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

XXXVIII. Summary of Analysis of Variance for Techniqueand Variable by Sex. ............... 0..... 92

vii

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Educators are continually evaluating the techniques of

teaching literature. They search for new methods to improve

reading skills, comprehension, appreciation, and retention.

The primary objective of teaching literature should be to

lead students to a vital and meaningful experience in response

to literature. David R. Maberry conducted experimental

research and concluded that

The results of the experiment indicate that stu-dents become more involved in the literary experienceorally [and that] . . . it may be concluded that thetechnique, rather than the literature was responsiblefor the better results, and therefore teachers ofEnglish should be trained in oral interpretation.1

Such investigation into the use of oral interpretation

as an instructional technique should be continued and ex-

panded. If oral interpretation is of value in producing

enjoyment and appreciation of literature for students, then

academic preparation in this area possibly should be required

for teachers of English. It is possible that video-taped

presentations made by persons who have had formal instruction

in oral interpretation may accomplish the same results in the

1 David R. Maberry, "A Comparison of Three Techniques of

Teaching Literature: Silent Reading, Solo Performance and

Readers Theatre;' unpublished doctoral dissertation, Collegeof Education, North Texas State University, Denton, Texas,1975, pp. 59-60.

1

2

teaching of literature as live presentation. Research and

investigation into this possibility can help establish the

better technique of teaching literature. From the estab-

lishment of the best technique of teaching literature, a

conclusion may be drawn as to the desirability of formal

education in oral interpretation for the teachers of English.

Statement of the Problem

The problem of this study was a comparison of the

responses of students to three techniques of teaching

literature.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to determine the most

effective of three techniques of teaching literature.

Specifically, this entailed (1) comparing silent reading,

live Readers Theatre presentation and video-tape Readers

Theatre presentation; (2) comparing the differences in

achievement and attitude responses to literature which

resulted from the three techniques; (3) comparing the

effectiveness of each technique at each grade level; and

(4) comparing the scores from the presentation of black

and white video-tape to the scores from the presentation

by color video-tape.

Hypotheses

To carry out the purposes of this study, the fol-

lowing hypotheses were tested and these hypotheses were

3

held for each grade level*.

1. When students were taught by A,

(a) they would achieve significantly higher mean scores

on an achievement test than when they were taught

by B.

(b) they would achieve significantly higher mean scores


by C.

2. When students were taught by B, they would achieve sig-

nificantly higher mean scores on an achievement test than

when they were taught by C.



on an attitude-scale test than when they were taught

by B.



by C.


nificantly higher mean scores on an attitude-scale test

than when they were taught by C.



on a retention test than when they were taught by B.

*A--Live presentation of Readers Theatre.B--Video-tape black and white presentation of Readers

Theatre.C--Individual acquisition by silent reading.D--Video-tape color presentation of Readers Theatre.

4


on a retention test than when they were taught by C.


nificantly higher mean scores on a retention test than

when they were taught by C.

7. When students were taught by D,



by B.

(b) They would achieve significantly higher mean scores


by B.

(c) they would achieve significantly higher retention

mean scores on an achievement test than when they

were taught by B.

(d) they would achieve significantly higher attitude

mean scores on a retention test than when they were

taught by B.

For the purposes of this study the use of both black and

white and color video-tape were considered as a singular

technique. Data were analyzed to determine differences in these

facets of a holistic technique. Comparison of video-tape color

with each of the other techniques was beyond the scope of

this study.

Background of the Study

The study of oral interpretation as an academic disci-

pline became a reality in the twentieth century. It was

5

recognized as an area to be studied in the field of speech

rather than in the field of English.2 Since that time it

has been the responsibility of English departments to place

emphasis on the analysis and mechanics of literature while

it has been the purpose of oral interpretation to place

emphasis on the performance of literature.

The oral approach to literature has enjoyed a rich and

proven heritage, but it is not the predominant method of

teaching literature today. The current pattern is to con-

fine the teaching of literature largely to silent reading,

where the student must transpose the literature into a

mental language. In the article "Getting Started With the

Oral Study of Literature," Forrest and Novelli commented

that

Writing and print . . . are yet derivative fromspeech. . . . Literature comes out of the headand heart of the author via his power to uselanguage. When we read literature . . . we tend

to return the piece of literature to its naturalhabitat in the world of speech-producing action;in other words, we "hear a voice" (and there isevidence that our speech organs are never at rest,even when we read silently). 3

Neville says, "Only when the reader is able to 'hear' (at

least in imagination) the words, phrases, and sentences,

or the verse, does he come close to the utterance of the

2Keith Brooks, Eugene Bahn and L. LaMont Okey, The Com-

municative Act of Oral Interpretation (Boston, 1967), p. 31.

3William Forrest and Neil Novelli, "Getting StartedWith the Oral Study of Literature," Oral English, I (Fall,1972), 1.

6

author. "4 It can be said, then, that language is the very

foundation of literature, and written language is only an

intermediary between the author and reader.

Silent reading of literature evolved from the necessity

in the contemporary classroom to acquaint students with an

abundance of materials. The most efficient and expedient

method of teaching was silent reading. Numerous teachers

have agreed that the traditional method of silent reading

is inadequate, that "covering literature" is not the same

as reading it. Forrest and Novelli state,

Literary works of art now lie silent, threatened withdrowning in a torrent of words about literature. . . .The addition of an oral approach to literature cutsthe ground from under the current complaint that verballearning is hollow and abstract.5

Literature, then, will suffer from a degree of incomplete-

ness until it is freed from the restraints of silent reading

and allowed the freedom and creativity of oral interpretation.

It is not the purpose of oral interpretation to replace

silent reading. Oral interpretation of literature is aimed

at bringing the text alive and should be used as an extension

to the traditional approach. According to Fernandez, litera-

ture does not live completely "until it exists as a living

presence conveying sounds, movements, ideas, and emotions."6

4Margaret Neville, "Oral Interpretation as an Aid to the

Understanding of Literature," Oral Interpretation and the

Teaching of English, edited by T.L. Fernandez (Champaign,Illinois,~1969), p. 17.

5Forrest and Novelli, p. 2.

6Thomas L. Fernandez, editor, "ISCET Conference," Oral

Interpretation and the Teaching of English (Champaign, Illi-

nois, 1969), p. 72.

7

Advocates of oral interpretation feel that this method is

the answer to making literature live. Lee, in her book,

Oral Interpretation, defined oral interpretation as the "art

of communicating to an audience a work of literary art in

its intellectual, emotional, and aesthetic entirety."7

Armstrong and Brandes concur with this definition, stating

that "oral interpretation of literature assists in re-creating

the stimulus as it was intended by the author. . . . The oral

interpreter has the distinct advantage of sharing literature

with an audience."8 Coger and White commented that the

purpose of interpretation is "to present a literary script

with oral interpreters using their voices and bodies to sug-

gest the intellectual, emotional, and sensory experiences

inherent in literature (which becomes so vital) . . . that

literature becomes a living experience--both for the reader

and for their audience."9 Forrest and Novelli claimed in

Oral English that

The oral approach to literature . . . is focused on thework itself. But the oral study of literature goes beyondanalysis and brings it to its natural culmination, theintegration of analytic insights into the living unityof the work itself, spoken, as much as possible, in itsown authentic voice.10

7Charlotte Lee, Oral Interpretation, 4th ed. (Boston,1971), p. 2.

8 Cloe Armstrong and Paul D. Brandes, The Oral Interpre-

tation of Literature, (New York, 1963), p. 17.

9 Leslie Irene Coger and Melvin R. White, Readers TheatreHandbook, (Glenville, Illinois, 1973), pp. 4-5.

1 0 Forrest and Novelli, p. 2.

8

These definitions of oral interpretation support the belief

that literature should be made to live in human minds and be

heard by the human ear. Interpretation of literature is not

merely articulating the words on the page. Thorough study

must be given to the text in order to understand it fully.

Students should know about literature, about environment,

about its creation, and about its author.1 1 The author is

the creative artist; the interpreter the re-creative artist.

It is through the re-creation of the work that students will

achieve better understanding and get more enjoyment from

literature. With understanding and enjoyment of literature,

there will be greater achievement, appreciation, and retention

by students.

The history of oral interpretation indicates that it

has been a valid approach to the teaching and appreciating

of literature. The dissatisfaction among educators with

present approaches indicates that a new approach to litera-

ture is required. While oral interpretation is not new, it

may provide an answer to the present problem. Based on the

definitions given by some of the proponents of oral inter-

pretation, oral interpretation helps the student to appreciate

and comprehend the whole of literary content and gives the

student the joy of a literary experience.

1 1 WallaceBacon, The Art of Interpretation, 2nd ed.,(New York, 1972), p. 19.

9

Significance of the Study

The proposed study was significant in that it examined

three techniques of teaching literature and identified the

most effective. The oral interpretative approach was tested

by experimental research.

Definition of Terms

For the purpose of this study it was necessary to define

(1) oral interpretation and (2) Readers Theatre,

1. Oral interpretation is a re-creation for an audience

of a literary work with attention focused on the author's

original intention.

2. Readers Theatre is a medium of oral interpretation

using two or more interpreters to present literature to an

audience. The presentation is designed to feature the text.

Instruments

Two types of measuring instruments were used for this

study. The technique chosen to evaluate attitude responses

to literature was the semantic differential. The technique

chosen to measure comprehension of literature was a multiple

choice, teacher-made, objective test. There were eight tests

given. One objective test and one semantic differential

was administered after each story. One combination objective

test made up of the previously-administered objective tests

and a semantic differential, one for each story, was given

to measure retention of content and attitude toward all

three stories.

10

Osgood states in The Measurement of Meaning that the

semantic differential is proposed as an instrument for

measuring meaning, usually concepts.12 An attitude reflects

a value judgement or contributes subjective meaning to a

concept. Shaw and Wright use Anderson and Fishbein to de-

fine attitude as "the evaluative dimension of a concept . .

the attitude toward an object is the sum strength of beliefs

about the object and the evaluative aspect of these beliefs. .13

An attitude, then, can be measured by an attitude scale.

The semantic differential serves as a stimulus to which

a student makes an overt response which can be encoded.

This response will indicate direction and intensity and

will reveal the subject's attitude toward the stimulus.

For these reasons, the semantic differential was chosen

to evaluate the attitude toward literature through silent

reading, Readers Theatre, and video-tape Readers Theatre.

The semantic differential for this study consisted of

twenty bipolar-item scales. Each pair of adjectives was

arranged on a seven-step continuum. Each scale was rated

from one to seven. A score of one represented an extremely

unfavorable attitude score, four represented a neutral

attitude, and seven represented an extremely favorable

attitude score. In the construction of the semantic

1 2 Charles Egerton Osgood, George J. Suci, and Percy H.Tannenbaum, The Measurement of Meaning (Urbana, Illinois,1959) , p. 140

1 3 Marvin E. Shaw and Jack M. Wright, Scales for the

Measurement of Attitudes (New York, 1967), p. 3.

1 4 Osgood, Suci, and Tannenbaum, p. 192.

11

differential, the evaluation-scale portion was loaded over

the potency and activity scales as suggested by Osgood.1 5

Ten scales of the semantic differential were evaluative

factors. When the ten evaluative scales were summed, a

score ranging from ten to seventy was possible. The semantic

differential had six potency scales and four activity scales.

These scales were not treated in this study. They were used

only to help the reliability of the evaluative scales (see

Appendices C, F, and I).

Osgood found that a 100-item semantic differential

could be taken in ten or fifteen minutes.1 6 The twenty-

item semantic differential for this study took a response

time of from two to five minutes.

The teacher-made objective tests consisted of fifteen

multiple-choice questions covering the material in each

story. Five teachers of English assisted in establishing

the validity and choice of test items. The test items

were based on a Q-sort ranking of twenty questions con-

structed for this study. The tests were of equal difficulty.

The objective test took no more than ten minutes to complete.

The objective test was scored to indicate the mean and

standard deviation for each presentation.

The experimental presentation, the semantic differential,

and the objective test were completed in one class period.

The feasibility of this procedure had been tested in a pilot

1 6 Ibid. p. 80.15Ibid., pp. 88, 191.

12

study in which a small group was subjected to the experi-

mental treatment and test procedures.

Population

For the purposes of this study, regularly-assembled

English classes, as opposed to honors or remedial English

classes, were selected from one high school and one univer-

sity in the central Arkansas area. The sample was repre-

sentative of the population of one metropolitan high school

and one four-year state university.

The enrollment of the high school, based on the North

Central Association summary report, represented a cross-

section of socioeconomic backgrounds with all economic levels

included. The data of the North Central Association report

revealed the student population to be stable. The school

maintained an English faculty of ten, and the average

teaching experience of this English faculty was 8.7 years.

Four credits of high school English are required of each

student, one for each year beginning with the ninth grade.

Fifty-two percent of the senior class planned to attend a

four-year college.1 7

The university had an enrollment of approximately

5,000. It is a state university, although it is not a

part of the state-university system of Arkansas. It is

1 7Northeast High School, "North Central AssociationSummary Report on School and Community," North Little

Rock, Arkansas, 1977, pp. 1-2.

13

located geographically near the large metropolitan area in

the center of the state. The university draws approximately

half of its enrollment from metropolitan areas throughout

the state and nearly equal percentage of students from

rural areas of Arkansas. The university students from the

metropolitan and rural regions represent a cross-section of

cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The high school and the university are in close prox-

imity. This proximity contributed to similar cultural and

economic backgrounds of all students involved in the study.

Selection of the Sample

The experimental group for this study consisted of

1. Four junior and four senior regular English classes

from one suburban high school with a population of approx-

imately 1,500 students.

2. Four freshman regular English classes from one four-

year state university with a population of approximately 5,000.

Each class from each of the schools had a minimum

of twenty students. Each grade level totaled a minimum

of eighty students. This provided a minimum sample of

240 students for this study. Sixty students, one class

with a minimum of twenty from each grade level, received

the presentation with color video-tape only. This al-

lowed a comparison of scores between black and white

video-tape and color video-tape. If a student missed any

one of the presentations or the retention test, his paper

14

was discarded and the data not used. The selected high

school had more than four high school junior and senior

classes of regular English and the university had more

than four freshman classes of regular English. To insure

random sampling in the selection of the four classrooms

to be used in the study, a list of numbers of classrooms

was made. The numbers of the classrooms were placed in a

container. After the numbers were thoroughly mixed, the

first four classroom numbers drawn were used for this

study. After the first classroom number had been drawn,

that number was replaced in the container to reduce biased

sampling. After the drawing of the second classroom num-

ber, that number was replaced to give unbiased sampling

for the third drawing. The same procedure was used for a

fourth drawing. A fifth classroom number was drawn under

the same format as the previous four to be used as a re-

placement if needed.

Research Design

Each class in each grade level received three presen-

tations of short stories of approximately the same length

and the same reading difficulty. The level of difficulty

of the short stories had been determined by use of the

Edward Fry formula for readability.18 One story was presented

by silent reading, one by Readers Theatre, and one by

1 8 Edward Fry, "Readability Formula That Saves Time:Readability Graph," Journal of Reading, XI (April, 1968),513-516.

15

video-tape. Each presentation lasted approximately twenty-

five minutes .

Design

Grade 11WGrade llXGrade 11YGrade 11Z

Tuesday WednesdayStory I Story II

Silent Reading Readers TheatreReaders Theatre Video-tapeVideo-tape Silent ReadingColor Video Color Video

ThursdayStory III

Video-tapeSilent ReadingReaders TheatreColor Video

Grade 12W Silent Reading Readers Theatre Video-tapeGrade 12X Readers Theatre Video-tape Silent ReadingGrade 12Y Video-tape Silent Reading Readers TheatreGrade 12Z Color Video Color Video Color Video

Monday Wednesday FridayStory I Story II Story III

Univ. W Silent Reading Readers Theatre Video-tapeUniv. X Readers Theatre Video-tape Silent ReadingUniv. Y Video-tape Silent Reading Readers TheatreUniv. Z Color Video Color Video Color Video

Cast I (see page 58) presented Story I in both Readers

Theatre and video-tape presentation. Cast II (see page 58)

presented Story II in both Readers Theatre and video-tape

presentations. Cast III (see page 58) presented Story III

in both Readers Theatre and video-tape presentations. Fol-

lowing each presentation, an objective test and a semantic

differential were given. Seven days later, the combination

objective test was given to test content retention. At the

time of the follow-up test on retention, a semantic differ-

ential (Appendices C ,F ,I ) for each story was given to each

class to measure attitude retention.

W..Mwvm

16

To carry out the purpose of this study, the difference

in means on the achievement tests and the difference in

means on the attitude tests were tested for significance.

The scores of each technique A, B, C, from all grades were

pooled for scoring achievement, attitude, and retention.

The scores for each grade level of technique B were pooled

for comparison to scores pooled for technique D. Each

technique was again pooled according to grade level to

test effects at each grade level. The pooling of scores

was adequate because it was the particular technique of

presentation that was being tested. No pretest was given.

A pretest was considered unnecessary since the randomiza-

tion of classes represented the equation of groups. The

use of randomized regular English classes indicated these

classes should be of the same ability and age. Airasian

indicated in Evaluation in Education that including only

posttest scores often was as adequate as including pretest

posttest scores for controlling threats to internal validity.

If there is no pretest but random assignment is used, the

threats to internal validity are reduced.1 9

Control Procedures

Teachers of the sample classrooms incorporated for the

experimental study had been asked in advance not to comment

on performances or make any requests for responses to the

1 9 Peter W. Airasian, "Designing Summative EvaluationStudies at the Local Level," Evaluation in Education, editor,W. James Popham (Berkeley, California, 1974), p. 183.

17

testing instruments. This procedure was implemented in

order to obtain an unbiased response from the students.

Instructions for each of the three class periods were read

aloud to insure a controlled environment.

The presentation by Readers Theatre and video-tape of

Story I was made by the same persons in all classes. The

Readers Theatre and video-tape presentations of Story II

were made by the same persons in all classes. Story III

presentation of Readers Theatre and video-tape was made

by the same persons in all classes. The participants in

the three groups were selected in order to achieve near-

equal ability in performance. They were of similar per-

formance-competency levels with equivalent experience and

exposure before an audience. The persons included in the

presentation of each story were different from those in-

cluded in the other two story presentations. This procedure

was implemented to reduce different responses to different

variables of personality, appearance, and enthusiasm of

performers.

The criterion for level of presentation for Readers

Theatre and video-tape Readers Theatre consisted of these

elements of performance:

Participants will be able to

1. Maintain eye contact with audience,2. Move to directed positions without hesitation,3. Build material to a climax,4. Focus attention on material rather than on tech-

niques of presentation,5. Re-create the literary work of the author with at-

tention focused on authors original intention.

18

The level of readiness for presentation was determined by

the director.

The equipment used to video-tape the Readers Theatre was

a Sony, interchangable, black and white and color camera.

The monitor was a Sony 21" screen. A three-quarter inch

tape was used for a video-tape cassette recorder. The use

of the interchangable camera, Sony model DXC 1200, neces-

sitated only one taping of each story for both black and

white and color video-tape. This procedure was used to

control for differences in performances by the persons

selected for the Readers Theatre presentations.

The short story presented as Story I was randomly

assigned to a cast from the three stories to be used in

this study. The story presented as Story II was ran-

domly assigned from the two remaining stories to be used

in this study. The remaining story was presented as

Story III.

Stories I, II, and III were adapted following the

general principles of oral interpretation as outlined

by Coger and White,2 0 Maclay,2 1 and other recognized

authorities. Adaptation may involve deletion of certain

passages, dialogue tags, directions, subplots, or minor

2 0 Coger and White, pp. 26-39.

2 1 Joanna Hawkins Maclay, Readers Theatre: TowardA Grammar of Practice (New York, 1971), pp. 9, 15.

19

characters. All are acceptable deletions as long as the ori-

ginal intention of the author is not destroyed. In addition

to cutting material, lines of the short stories may be rear-

ranged if the original temporal mode of the narrative format

is retained. Deletions and rearrangements which were made

for the performance scripts were also made in the stories as

they were used for silent reading.

Criterion for Selection of Stories

A major concern of this study was the selection of three

literary works from which to produce scripts. Eudora Welty was

selected as the author from whose works three stories would be

chosen. The decision as to which stories would be selected was

based on the amount of dialogue available in Welty's stories as

well as the episodic plot development of her stories. Both char-

acteristics contribute to the adaptability of the stories for

script development. Cast size was an issue since video taping

required a small cast to adapt to camera-angle span. The three

stories selected provided similar cast sizes of five characters

in each of two stories and three in a third story. Also of

concern was length of the stories. The three stories chosen

were of approximately equal length, thereby meeting the require-

ments of the thirty-minute time limit of the video-tapes. Fin-

ally, the level of readability was a factor. The Fry Readability

Formula revealed that each of the stories is written on a sixth-

grade level, which meets the requirements of the different age

levels of the three groups included in the sample.

20

Procedures for Analysis of Data

This study employed an experimental design in which

four experimental treatments were applied in a restricted

randomized manner to four naturally assembled grade groups.

The counter-balanced design, Number Eleven, was used as

expressed by Campbell and Stanley in Experimental and

Quasi-Experimental Design for Research.2 2

After the data had been collected, the scores for

technique A were pooled; the scores for technique B were

pooled; and the scores for technique C were pooled. The

first six hypotheses were tested to determine significance

by determining the means and standard deviations of all

grade-level scores to each technique. Hypothesis Seven

was tested by comparing each grade level mean and standard

deviation of black and white video-tape with each grade

level mean and standard deviation of color video-tape.

Within each technique, the mean and standard deviation

scores for each grade level were compared to every other

grade level.

Each hypothesis was tested in the null form by use

of analysis of variance. The levels of significance were

reported. Conclusions and recommendations were formulated

from the findings.

2 2Donald T. Campbell and Julian C. Stanley, Experimentaland Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research (Chicago, 1963),p. 50.

CHAPTER II

HISTORY AND RELATED LITERATURE

Oral interpretation has been an important educational

tool throughout the history of civilization. The art of oral

communication is older than written communication. Oral in-

terpretation began to flourish in ancient Greece where "the

spoken word was a living thing . . . preferred to the dead

symbols of a written language."1 Few things were more impor-

tant than the spoken word to the Greeks. Language, oral

debate, and vocal literature opened a new realm of excel-

lence in which the mind could earn a person pretige, much

as did great wealth or physical beauty.

Influence of the Greeks

Rich and flexible language resulted in literature

designed to be heard rather than read. The Greeks con-

sidered the written word to be rigidly set and unchanging.

They felt that words etched into a clay tablet were inflex-

ible and allowed no expansion of thought or feeling. Many

Greek philosophers looked upon the rigidity of the written

word as only a recollection of what one knows.2 These

lEugene Bahn and Margaret L. Bahn, A History of Oral

Interpretation (Minneapolis, 1971), p. 3.

2Ibid.

21

22

philosophers felt the word had no hope of survival unless

it was etched into the living consciousness by the human

voice.

Two groups of men were entrusted with the responsi-

bility of communicating the Greek traditions. The oldest

group were known as minstrels. They used a lyre for accom-

paniment as they recited. Minstrels were given the respon-

sibility of developing national pride, inspiring worship of

heros, paying honor to the gods, influencing public opinion,

and providing entertainment. Many Greek citizens felt that

the minstrels received their skill from the gods and that

this gift placed them above mortal man.3 This idea resulted

in the bestowing of special favors on the men who could sing

and recite.

As the stories of gods and the Greek heritage became

more popular, another type of reciter developed. The

rhapsodes, as they were called, did not use the lyre as

the minstrels had done.4 Without the recitation bound

to the rhythm and music of the lyre, the rhapsodes were

given credit for freeing the spoken word. The absence

of the musical instruments also gave the rhapsodes freedom

for gestures and movement during the recitations. It was

generally felt that the freedom from the lyre allowed more

3Ibid., p. 6.

4 Keith Brooks, Eugene Bahn and L. LaMont Okey, TheCommunication Act of Oral Interpretation (Boston, 1967),p. 4.

23

clarity of thought. This instigated the idea that thought

could actually be separated from emotional quality.5

The stories that the rhapsodes told were the old tales

and legends that had been handed down by oral literature.

The rhapsodes would alter and improvise the stories to fit

a particular audience. Due to the tremendous and growing

influence on the people by the rhapsodes, a law was estab-

lished in the sixth century B.C. that prohibited the rhap-

sodes from taking too much liberty and "speaking falsely." 6

The emphasis of the recitations then changed from their

poetic value to that of historical accuracy.

The rhapsodes acquired their notoriety by telling

stories in the Greek festivals. Often, several different

performances of the same story were heard at a festival.

Continuous repetition of these familiar stories brought

about another change in presentation. Instead of re-telling

the same story, one rhapsode would pick up the story line

where another left off. Some of the stories even lent

themselves to division of speeches between rhapsodes.

These treatment changes allowed audiences to hear and

see more flexible presentations.

For generations the Greeks trained themselves to

recite and retain the spoken word. As Greece became a

democracy, the scope of oral recitation widened. Poet,

5 Bahn and Bahn, p. 7.

6Ibid., p. 8.

24

storyteller, teacher, philosopher, lecturer, each tried to

please a variety of tastes of the people. No matter what

the profession, the spoken word was the main method of

passing knowledge, emotion, and tradition to others. It

was this oral tradition that provided a solid foundation

for the culture of the western world.7

The Roman Era

As the Golden Age of Greece declined, the Roman Empire

began. Rome's conquest of Greece brought Greek captives

to Rome and with them came Greek culture and literature.

Oral presentation of literature was as important in

the Roman era as it had been in the Greek era. The Roman

oral traditions were actually divided into two different

modes of presentation. The first method consisted of

informal readings and recitings of poetry in homes or

before small groups of friends. As a social event, reading

called for criticism of the reader and evaluation of the

verses. This approach was more valuable to the develop-

ment of oral literature than the elaborate public recitals

of the age.

Rome began to give more attention to the arts as the

interest in conquest declined. By the time Rome was an

established empire, oral literature was no longer needed

to persuade and impress in order to establish positions

7Ibid., p. 1.

8 Brooks, Bahn, and Okey, p. 6.

25

of authority. After authority had been secured by means of

practical oral communication, this type of oratory was no

longer in demand. This released the practical orators from

public responsibilities and allowed them to expand their

talents to the use of oral presentations for entertainment.

By the time of the Augustan Age, there was such prosperity

and power that this period was said to be "the most flour-

ishing age of poetry in the history of Rome; at this time

oral reading developed to an unprecedented degree . . .

everyone was either writing and reciting poems or thronging

to hear the great poets read their work."9

Out of the popularity of hearing speeches, two kinds

of declamations developed--the controversia and the suasovia.

The controversia was based on a law case in which the speaker

spoke as the persons involved in the legal case and not as

himself. The suasovia was a form of entertainment where the

speaker would counsel some historical character on matters

of behavior.1 0

Although the Golden Age of Roman literature gave way

to a lesser period of poets, the oral art still flourished.

In the first century A.D., "all Rome was caught up in the

excitement of recitals given by poets and reciters both

famed and obscure. Halls were crowded, large villas were

packed, rich men and emperors built special recital halls

9Bahn and Bahn, p. 31.

10 Ibid., p. 33.

26

to which the great, the fashionable, the literati . . . came

in throngs."" With such popularity, the demand for new

material actually brought down the quality of selections

and performances. Eventually the decline of quality re-

sulted in oral recitations which were nothing more than

an intolerable duty.

With everyone accustomed to hearing reciters and

oral readers, it was customary for teachers and pupils

to emphasize the oral tradition.12 A pleasing voice and

good delivery were both necessary for social status.

Students were taught by reading aloud and reciting from

memory. Comprehension of the material was thought to be

the golden rule of oral development, followed by voice

quality and gesture. Literature, law, and group mores

were the main areas of study. The spoken word was the

tool used in education "for preservation and propagation"

of Roman ways.13

The cultured families and important people continued

their studies of oral reading daily. Even emperors had

daily supervision in the oral arts. Their particular tastes

influenced the development of literature and recitation

during their period of power. 14

11 Ibid., p. 34.

1 2 Cloe Armstrong and Paul E. Brandes, The Oral Inter-pretation of Literature (New York, 1963), p. 11.

1 3 Bahn and Bahn, p. 39.

14Ibid., p. 41.

27

The oral arts continued to flourish to the end of the

Roman Empire. As long as the Roman Empire thrived, the

oral arts thrived. When the Roman Empire collapsed, the

oral tradition was carried on by the followers of Christ.

Advent of Christianity

The early influence of Christianity depended on the

spoken word.1 5 The message of salvation depended on story-

telling and reading aloud from the holy books. Those

skilled in oral communication were the source of inspira-

tion to countless numbers of people who were seeking

salvation.

By the fourth century, reading aloud was an extremely

important part of the church. Both the reading of oral

literature and the literature itself had become the respon-

sibility of the monastic life. The role of the interpreter

was vital in proclaiming the gospel. With the interpreter

and the literature from the church, it was the church that

uas responsible for maintaining the importance of oral

interpretation throughout the Medieval period.1 6

Reciting and reading were equally important in the

education of school children. Many of the church fathers

realized how effective the spoken word was in saving souls. Reading

lessons orally was stressed to improve diction as well as

to acquire knowledge of the literature.17 The lessons

1 5 Brooks, Bahn, and Okey, p. 7.


1 7 Ibid. p. 50.

28

usually consisted of reading or reciting biblical stories,

psalms, and prayers. These subjects were taught in prepar-

ation for the practice of making a public verbal profession

of faith that was necessary to join the church.

Church members were expected to commit to memory cer-

tain creeds to be recited when called upon. Church members

also were expected to be skilled in the art of persuasion.

It was the purpose of the oral reading and reciting to per-

suade people to change their way of life. The art of elo-

quence in delivery was most effective in convincing people

to change from the pleasures of the world in exchange for

a future existence which they could neither see nor envision.18

In some of the stated philosophies of the period, "a

word was not a word until it was spoken." 1 9 It was gen-

erally thought that oral interpretation was the best way

to hold a man's attention and influence his thinking. The

responsibility of the interpreter lay with interpreting

the proper meaning of the scriptures in such a manner as to

bring forth truth.

Medieval Period

The medieval emphasis of oral reading was different

from the Roman era. During the Roman Empire, reading had

been a means of publishing literature and of obtaining

criticism. In the Christian period, the chief aim of oral

reading was to further the gospel of Christ. The insistence

1 8 Ibid., p. 52. 1 9Ibid.

29

of good oral reading was ingrained by the church. The church

practice of reading at meal times was taken into the home.

Even though the home was an important link in keeping oral

reading an important part of the culture, it was the church's

insistence on good oral reading that retained the oral tra-

dition.20

There were other groups during the medieval period that

found a ready audience outside the church. Looked down on

by the church, these groups were respected members of society

and were popular to a large number of people. The groups

were the scops, gleemen, and minstrels who traveled around

the country side or they may have been fortunate enough to

attach themselves to a family of nobility. They were con-

sidered great story-tellers. Since the majority of people

could not read, these different groups used oral literature

as sheer entertainment. Nevertheless, the church observed

the popularity of story-telling and began to incorporate

the art in the pursuit of souls.2 1

The strength of Christianity and the growing reading

audience undermined the popularity of the various groups

of story-tellers. Once again the church, by incorporating

the art of story-telling, fulfilled the needs of the people

and influenced the oral tradition for centuries to come.

Chaos caused by nation invading nation brought on the

Dark Ages. Literature was kept alive during this time

20Ibid., p. 50. 21Ibid., p. 80.

30

primarily because of Biblical stories, pagan literature,

and romantic tales of chivalry. Starting in the four-

teenth century, the dissatisfaction with the status quo

brought on a gradual revival of learning. Learning did

not reach its true rebirth until the sixteenth century,

when the Renaissance thinkers returned to the oral tech-

niques used by ancient Greece and Rome. This revival

meant a new movement in literature.

Throughout the Dark Ages, educators had not lost sight

of the need for good oral delivery. In seeking scholastic

freedom, curiosity began to replace tradition. In the

reappraisal of literature, the oral techniques of the

ancients were studied to try to bring about a new form

of expression in language. The new form that developed

from this study was humanism.

Humanism

The humanistic teachers would recite from memory the

works being studied in the schools. Paper at this time

was still very costly, and teachers could not rely on stu-

dents having books. Even when students did have paper,

lessons were copied from dictation. In reading the lessons,

the teacher would recite to the pupils with great care to

give meaning as well as accurate wording.2 3 A teacher's

voice was of major importance in conveying the literature.

In turn the teachers stressed meaning and communication as

22Ibid. , p. 85. 23Ibid. , p. 89.

31

the primary concept of learning literature. Emphasis was

placed on proper pauses, diction, polished delivery, cor-

rect breathing, and proper inflection. Teacher and pupil

relied heavily on memorization.

As the century advanced, rhetoric became one of the most

important subjects studied. Books were being written on rhe-

toric but the number fell far short of the growing demand.

These texts were used mainly as a supplement in the schools

established primarily for the study of rhetoric. With such

importance placed on rhetoric, style, vocabulary, and expres-

sion were necessary to support a speaker's arguemtn or persuade

a listener. Even though rhetoric was important in its own

right, it also advanced the appreciation of literature.2 4

The works of ancient writers were read aloud in the

schools to enhance appreciation of literature. It was thought

that hearing the style of the classical masters would help

the pupils develop a style of their own. Pupils were encour-

aged to write declamations and read them aloud in order to

find their own style. The hearers were encouraged to criti-

cize the work. The practice enabled both speaker and listener

to improve in fluency and ease of expression.2 5

Not only was fluency and ease expected in expression

but both qualities were expected in the physical bearing

and posture of the interpreter. Action and gesture were

very much a part of delivery. Bodily action was not taught

2 4Ibid., p. 90. 2 5Ibid.

32

separate from the voice. Both were taught to be related to

the subject and to reflect the action of the mind.2 6

The bodily action and voice of the interpreter called

for certain responses from the audience. The exact rela-

tionship between performer and audience caused some differ-

ences in philosophies. Some felt the performer should make

necessary adjustments to be acceptable to an audience.

Others felt that the interpreter had no right to modify

a literary work to seek a certain response. If the literary

work did not fit an audience, the solution was simply to

find another selection that did fit that audience.2 7

Emotion was another element that brought much discus-

sion during the Renaissance period. This question concerned

just what role emotion should play. Should the interpreter

actually experience the emotion which the author sought, or

should he merely convey emotion to the hearer? In general,

the interpreter was to experience the emotions while keeping

them under control and transmit them to an audience. No

matter how emotion was handled, it was recognized as a power

of the voice and a dominant factor in delivery.

Churchmen as well as educators were interested in

fostering oral reading. This interest spread from the

church and school to the home as it had done in previous

centuries. The daily ritual of the home was to gather

together to listen to those who could read.29 Many

26Ibid., p. 95. 2 7 Ibid., p. 24. 2 8 Ibid.,p. 120.

2 9 Brooks, Bahn, and Okey, p. 9.

33

authors were conscious of the fact that they were writing

for a listening as well as a reading audience.30

The English Language

By the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,

many in England began to complain of the emphasis being

placed on the classics. It was thought that English should

be taught rather than Greek and Latin. England had pro-

duced literature of its own and schools no longer needed

to teach the classics exclusively. Yet, it was the revival

of the ancient Greek and Roman authors that laid the ground-

work for literature and interpretation in the seventeenth

century.31

A definite philosophy of speech expression developed

in eighteenth century England. The English language became

more standardized and with the standardization came an ef-

fort to pronounce and articulate the language correctly.

Oratory was of prime importance and public speaking sent

many in search of a speech teacher. The home and church

continued to foster the development of speech in this Age

of Reason. The growing theatre was still another center

for effective speech. This combined interest in oral

practices gave rise to a large number of teachers of speech.3 2

Elocution

The teachers of speech were actually teachers of elo-

cution. It was their responsibility to improve the standards


3 1 Ibid, p. 116. 3 2 Ibid., p. 113.

34

of oral delivery. Oral practices had become stilted and

artificial with no concern for spontaneity, logical treat-

ment, and emotional expression.33 The clergy, actors, and

others placed the blame for this on the educators, claiming

that schools put more emphasis on the reading itself than

on the elements of reading. The result was too little vol-

ume, rapid speech, inconsistent changes in tempo, and unvarying

tone in oral delivery. The elocutionist set out to correct

these poor habits.3 4

Many of the elocution teachers were convinced that com-

munication should sound natural, as though a reader were

expressing his own ideas in his own words. In general,

they felt that reading should sound like conversation. A

reader was expected to read from a manuscript with such

ease that people would be unaware that it was actually

being read. 35

The basis for the natural approach was reasoning and

understanding. It was the task of the interpreter to com-

municate understanding to the hearer, after first achieving

understanding through reasoning. Reasoning and under-

standing did not eliminate emotion as a desirable quality

of delivery. Emotional reaction was accepted if it were

a natural response passed along through the interpreter

but supplied first by the author. It was the lack of the

emotional element that brought so much criticism from the

3 3 Ibid., p. 114. 3 4 Ibid., p. 116.

3 5 Ibid.

35

public and the very element that stimulated the increase in

numbers of teachers of elocution.3 6

With emotion an accepted aspect of oral delivery, the

elocutionist developed different teaching methods as to how

this effect on the hearer should be achieved. As in the

Renaissance, some felt the degree of emotion required in the

art of reading should stem from the natural emotion first

felt by the interpreter. Others felt the interpreter should

stand apart and use only technique in seeking audience re-

sponse. No matter which theory was followed, both felt the

hearer should be emotionally moved.3 7

This division on the approach toward emotion divided

elocution into two schools, mechanical and natural.3 8 The

natural approach favored greater freedom of expression by

the study of the freedom found in nature. The mechanical

approach established a system for graphically charting either

vocal or bodily expression. The mechanical theory of inter-

pretation was not set up to replace the thinking process or

eliminate the emotion that came from within the interpreter.

Both schools of thought maintained theirs was the right way

for an interpreter to reach an audience.3 9

36 Ibid., p. 143.

3 7 Ibid., p. 119.

3 8 Richard Haas and David A. Williams, The Study of OralInterpretation Theory and Comment (Indianapolis, 1975), p. 3.


36

Just as there were two different theories of teaching,

there were two different methods of interpretive perform-

ance. Reading and recitation were both acceptable practices.

Certain categories of material were thought to be better

performed one way than another. A sermon was thought best

to be memorized while poetry was thought best to be read.40

Most preferred to hear good reading rather than endure the

faulty presentation resulting from poor memory work.

Age of Reason

The mechanical aspects of speech and the division of

literary forms reflect the Age of Reason in the desire for

order and organization. Both were attempts at logical think-

ing. Despite the conflicts in theory and delivery, readings

and recitings were not just classroom activities. They

were given as public performances to eager audiences in

taverns, drawing rooms, and coffee houses.4 1 Such offerings

were expected to replenish the mind and spirit of the hearer.

From a widespread interest by every faction of society in

interpretation, interpretation continued to thrive throughout

the eighteenth century. It was during this period that Amer-

ica was directly affected.

The standards of the English elocutionists were car-

ried into colonial America. Emotional bonds with England

40 Brooks, Bahn, and Okey, p. 11.


37

were still strong; therefore, Americans gave wide acceptance

to the authorities and theories of the English.4 2

American Contribution

Although it was late in the Eigthteenth Century before

America made its own contribution to the field of interpre-

tation, Americans were aware of the importance of maintain-

ing a standard in reading.43 For this reason the oral

tradition found its way into the first American colleges.

Oral delivery gained an honored place in the American school

curriculum. Recitings, readings, and other speech activities

were extremely popular, and this continued into nineteenth

century America.4 4

The Nineteenth Century in America was an age in which

the population increased with incredible speed. Ethnic

groups with different customs, languages, and literary back-

grounds were aware of the need to unify both language and

thinking if the nation were to survive. A sound educational

system, a free press, and able speakers who could express

themselves clearly with voice or pen were of prime impor-

tance. Oral expression arose to embody religious, philo-

sophical, scientific, and psychological thinking of America.

Educators and readers were developing their own theories and

42 Mary Margaret Robb, Oral Interpretation of Literature(New York, 1968), p. 17.


4 4 Ibid., p. 139.

38

and philosophies.4 5 Still not strong enough to establish a

reliance on these ideas, America continued to reflect

eighteenth century English philosophies. Elocution was

still the strongest influence on oral expression in England

and America.

Scientific Approach

The tremendous growth of the scientific spirit in

America was incorporated into elocution. The scientific

approach included training in the areas of vocal sounds,

time elements, force, stress, pitch, melody, cadence,

quality, and rapidity of utterance.46 The importance of

both mind and emotion was still a part of elocution, even

though it was believed that a great number of skills could

be developed.

The scientific approach to oral expression was not

universally accepted. The misuse of the basic concepts

produced a detailed, meticulous, mechanical, artificial,

and impractical approach to oral expression. Although

based on sound educational principles, the voice and bodily

action became highly systematized. No longer was oral

expression considered an art. It was not considered the

science of elocution. Approaching the extreme, oral inter-

pretation needed to be reevaluated to make it a vital part

of American life.4 7

4 5Robb, p. 71.


47Ibid., p. 150.

39

Mental Processes

By the late Nineteenth Century, interest turned toward

the mental processes involved in reading. It was believed

that too much mechanical action interfered with the normal

response of clear thinking. This new interest in oral liter-

ature placed a value not only on the audience but on the

reader himself. This approach changed the objective of oral

expression from that of pleasing an audience to that of de-

veloping an individual. When it was discovered that the art

of oral expression could help a student's development as an

individual as well as train him to express himself orally,

the prestige of the discipline as an educational medium rose.

Colleges and private schools began to look on it with in-

creasing favor.4 8

This new approach meant that action of the mind would

bring about the response of voice and body. No longer was

one considered a separate unit from the other. Actually

the "new" concept was a return to the concepts from years

before. Thought and understanding that the ancient Greeks

stressed was once again to go hand in hand with oral reading.

Emotion and feeling were revived as a necessary companion

to thought. However, emotional display and falsified emo-

tion were rejected as means by which to move an audience.

Emotional evolvement was expected to come from real feeling,

both controlled and genuine.49

4 8 Ibid., p. 152. 49Ibid. , p. 154.

40

The amount of emotional control to be involved in

reading and speaking brought about some differences of

opinions. Some felt that reading from a text required

less emotion than speaking. The difference stemmed from

the concept that the speaker was expressing ideas which

he himself created. In oral reading the idea was simul-

taneously taken in by the eye, understood by the mind, and

communicated by the voice.5 0 The presence of an outside

source was thought to call for a more subtle approach by

the reader.

Early America was no different from previous ages.

There remained not only a difference concerning the ques-

tion of emotion but also the controversy of the merit of

reading from a printed page as compared to merely memor-

izing a selection. Those who supported reading viewed

memorization as imposing an unnecessary strain on the

memory that could cause difficulty in coping with the

meaning of a selection. However, the reader was allowed

to build confidence by depending on the printed material.

With this added cofidence, the reader could convey charac-

ters and scenery, using only voice and physical gesture.

Oral interpretation with its unique form of expression

became very popular in the early twentieth century, esp-

ecially to those who were interested in an honest and simple,

while subtle, presentation of an author's meaning.5 1

50Ibid., p. 155. 1lbid., p. 154.

41

The growing demand for education, culture, and enter-

tainment in the early twentieth century spread from the

large cities to remote towns across America. Town halls,

auditoriums, and school rooms were filled to hear readings

and recitations. Maintaining a standard of excellence for

both the performers and the material became an area of con-

cern. As interest in industry and the dollar replaced a

concern for art, there remained a controversy as to the

merits of reading from a printed page and of memorization.

Stemming from this controversy, oral interpretation evolved

from an educational tool to being a form of entertainment.5 2

Current Trends

The current trend is to examine the merits of oral

interpretation fully with the possibility of returning it

to the educational system as a viable technique of teaching

literature. In the present age, the teaching of literature

has been the responsibility of English teachers. In English

classrooms, the teaching of literature has served a variety

of purposes. Some educators have expressed displeasure

with the different methods currently being used. Neville

states,

Today we put so much emphasis on rapid readingthat we often encourage the student to cover pagesas fast as he can. We give courses in rapid read-ing, sometimes claiming that by such acceleratedreading we increase comprehension. It is truethat a person may train himself, or be trained,

52 Ibid, p. 165.

42

to absorb facts from the printed page more quickly.. . . We admit there are books that deserve to beread only at breakneck speed, but such reading isnot fair to the creative artist who has worked hardto express ideas and images perfectly that he mayshare with a reader his vision of reality . . . sincewords are primarily oral symbols, it-would be wellfor the reader to hear their sounds.5

Armstrong and Brandes claim that "man likes to hear his

thoughts as well as see them. Reading some literature

silently makes it as innocuous as a silent merry-go-round,

or a noiseless ocean, or a muzzled football crowd."5 4

Similar to the rapid and silent reading methods, some

critics condem the sight-word method. By this method stu-

dents learn to recognize and call words often without fully

comprehending their meaning. The contention with the sight-

word method is that it fails to increase the vocabulary of

the students, thus bringing literature down to a lower level.

Langer, in her book Feeling and Form, points out that

"much of the teaching of English has very little to do with

literature as literature." 5 5 Bacon and Bales support this

idea. Bacon says that the teaching of literature "becomes

an interest in spelling, grammar, vocabulary building, expo-

sition, biography, history, sociology, philosophy, and so

on." 5 6 Bales opinion is expressed as

5 3Margaret M. Neville, "Oral Interpretation as an Aid tothe Understanding of Literature," Oral Interpretation and theTeaching of English, edited by Thomas L. Fernandez (Champaign,Illinois, 1969), p. 18.

5 4Armstrong and Brandes, p. 13.

55 Susanne Langer, Feeling and Form (New York, 1953), p. 208.

5 6Wallace Bacon, "The Act of Literature", Oral English, I(Spring, 1972), 1.

43

Some English teachers in the study of literature mayplace the emphasis on the historical, biographicaland social significance of the work. On the otherhand, others may spend little or no time on theseaspects. They may prefer instead to dwell on suchthings as theme, tone, diction, imagery, meter, plot,point of view, etc.57

These comments on the teaching of literature indicate

that literature has been taught in a variety of ways but

not always has literature been taught as literature. Instead

of literature being made complicated, time-consuming, and

uninteresting, many scholars have suggested it should be

taught as an art form. The primary objective of teaching

literature as an art form should be to lead students to the

experiencing of literature through various techniques of

oral interpretation. Clarence W. Hack, Supervisor of English

in Evanston, Illinois, states that the first and most impor-

tant major emphasis in the teaching of literature is "the

enjoyment and appreciation of literature, or reading itself." 58

Hack condemns the traditional method with these comments:

I really believe that these traditional courses tra-ditionally taught do more to turn pupils away fromgood reading than to it, that few pupils become . . .compulsive readers. . . . I believe that many Englishteachers, despite their best intentions, have done moreto develop nonreaders than they have to develop com-pulsive readers.5 9

5 7 Allen Bales, "Oral Interpretation: An Extension ofLiterary Study," Oral Interpretation and the Teaching ofEnglish, edited by T. L. Fernandez (Champaign, Illinois,1969) , p. 21.

5 8 Clarence W. Hack, "A Supervisor Looks at the Teachingof Literature in the High School," Oral Interpretation andthe Teaching of English, edited by T.L. Fernandez (Champaign,Illinois, 1969), p. 37.

59 Ibid.

44

The concern stated by educators about the teaching of

literature requires definitive action. Rather than state-

ments based on feelings, concrete evidence could provide

the necessary answers to the frustration and dissention

over the purpose of teaching literature. Experimental

research into the value of this art form in our educational

system is not extensive. 60 Investigation could provide

revelations into the effectiveness of oral interpretation

as a mode of literary style. A conclusion could then be

drawn as to the desirability of the place of oral interpre-

tation in the teaching of literature.

Summary

The history of the oral tradition for western civil-

ization began in ancient Greece. Before the days of re-

corded history, oral recitation was the means by which

national pride was instilled, law was communicated, enter-

tainment was presented, and education was provided. The

oral arts were more important than the written word. The

Greek oral customs spread westward with civilization toward

Rome. Teacher and pupil studied oral techniques in an

attempt to improve delivery. The most important aspect

of oral study was comprehension of material.

When the Roman Empire declined, the oral arts were

salvaged from mediocrity by the superb storytellers of

60 John W. Gray, "The Process: Oral Interpretation asCommunication," Perspectives on Oral Interpretation, editedby L.W. Gray (Minneapolis, 1968), p. 4.

45

Christianity. From the influence of the church, reciting

and reading aloud became equally important in the education

of school children. Proper interpretation was as necessary

as excellence in delivery.

As the western world fell into disruption, literature

was kept alive by the minstrels who wandered the countryside

telling stories and singing. As literacy increased with

the gradual revival of learning, the minstrels lost their

place of importance.

From the Renaissance in learning, the oral techniques

of the ancient Greeks and Romans became a part of the

scholastic studies. The works of ancient writers were read

aloud in the homes and gathering places to enhance apprecia-

tion of literature.

By the late Sixteenth and early Seventeenth Centuries,

many in England began to complain of stilted and artificial

oral practices. It was not until eighteenth century England

that a new philosophy resulted in renewed resistance to poor

readings and recitations. A concerted effort to improve the

standards of oral delivery resulted in the elocutionist move-

ment to improve delivery by making it spontaneous and natural.

The elocutionist eventually went to the extreme with graphic

charting of each vocal and bodily expression. Although it

was this method that influenced early America, Americans

soon realized their own need for able speakers who could

express themselves freely. Public reading and recitation

became extremely popular in growing America. The interest

46

and importance of reading aloud and memorization diminished

as concerns in industry replaced the arts.

Based on comments of current-day critics, the absence

of oral interpretation in the teaching of literature is

disturbing. History has proven that oral interpretation

has maintained its importance as a fundamental educational

tool. If oral interpretation can enhance appreciation,

comprehension and retention, then it should be an integral

part of the teaching of literature. Research can provide

the evidence needed regarding the place of oral interpre-

tation in the teaching of literature.

CHAPTER III

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

The purpose of this study was to determine the most

effective of three techniques of teaching literature.

Specifically this entailed (1) comparing silent reading,

live Readers Theatre presentation, and video-tape Readers

Theatre presentation; (2) comparing the differences in

achievement and attitude responses to literature which

resulted from the three techniques; (3) comparing the

effectiveness of each technique at each grade level; and

(4) comparing the scores from the presentation of black

and white video-tape to the scores from the presentation

of color video-tape. To accomplish this purpose,the study

employed an experimental design in which four experimental

treatments were applied in a restricted randomized manner

to four naturally-assembled groups at three grade levels.

For the purposes of this study, regularly-assembled

English classes, as opposed to honors or remedial English

classes, were selected from one high school and one univer-

sity in the central Arkansas area. Four junior and four

senior regular English classes were selected from one sub-

urban high school, and four freshman regular English classes

were selected from one four-year state university. Each

class was presented three short stories. Each of the stories

47

48

was approximately the same length, was on the same level of

reading difficulty, and was written by the same author. All

three stories were on a sixth-grade reading level as deter-

mined by the Fry Readability Formula. 1 Each story was pre-

sented by silent reading, by Readers Theatre, and one by

video-taped Readers Theatre. The stories were presented in

the order displayed in Table I at each grade level.

TABLE I

ORDER OF TECHNIQUE USED IN PRESENTATIONOF THE SHORT STORIES

Class Story I Story II Story III

W Silent Reading Readers Theatre Video-tape

X Readers Theatre Video-tape Silent Reading

Y Video-tape Silent Reading Readers Theatre

Z Color Video-tape Color Video-tape Color Video-tape

The short

I.

II.

III.

stories used were

"Petrified Man" by Eudora Welty,

"Why I Live at the P.O." by Eudora Welty, and

"Lily Daw and the Three Ladies" by Eudora Welty.

Description of Subjects

The subjects for this study came from one suburban high

school and one state university. The high school had a

lEdward Fry, "Reliability Formula that Saves Time:Readability Graph," Journal of Reading , XI (April, 1968),

513-516.

49

population of approximately fifteen hundred students. The

enrollment of the high school represents a cross-section of

socioeconomic backgrounds with all economic levels included.

The university chosen for the study has a population of

approximately five thousand. Drawing approximately half

of its enrollment from metropolitan areas throughout the

state and nearly-equal percentage of students from rural

areas, the university population represents a cross-section

of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

At each school, classes of regular English were chosen

to receive the experimental treatments. Class size was about

the same at each grade level, usually twenty to twenty-five

students in each class. One class from each grade level re-

ceived the presentation with color video-tape only. Forty-

eight students had complete data for the color presentations.

This allowed for a comparison of scores between black and

white video-tape and color video-tape. There were one

hundred-fifteen juniors, ninety-two seniors, and ninety-five

university freshmen involved in the study for a total of

three hundred-two subjects.

Description of the Instruments

Two types of measuring instruments were used for this

study. A total of eight tests was given. One objective

test and one semantic differential were administered after

each story. One combination objective test, made up of the

previous objective tests, and one semantic differential for

each story were administered to measure retention of content

50

and attitude toward all three stories seven days after the

last presentation.

The instrument to measure comprehension was a teacher-

made objective test for each story. Five teachers of

English assisted in the choice of fifteen test items by

a Q-sort ranking of twenty questions for difficulty and

appropriateness. Three of the five teachers had to place

the question in the top fifteen in order to qualify the

question for inclusion on the objective test. The combina-

tion objective test to measure retention was made up of all

forty-five comprehension questions. The test items were in

scrambled order for the retention test. The tests are in-

cluded in Appendix C ("Petrified Man"), Appendix ' ("Why

I Live at the P.O."), Appendix I ("Lily Daw and the Three

Ladies"), and Appendix J (Combination Rentention Test).

Three semantic differentials, one for each story,

were used to test attitude responses to literature. The

semantic differential for this study consisted of twenty

bipolar-item scales. The same twenty bipolar adjectives

were used for each story, but the order and poles were changed.

In the construction of the semantic differential, the evaluative-

scale portion was loaded over the potency and activity scales

as suggested by Osgood.2 Of the twenty bipolar-adjective

scales, ten were evaluative factors, six were potency scales,

2 Charles Egerton Osgood, George J. Suci, and Percy H.Tannenbaum, The Measurement of Meaning (Urbana, Illinois,1957), pp. 88, 191.

51

and four were activity scales. Only the evaluative scales

were considered in this study. The activity and potency

scales were used only to increase the reliability of the

evaluative scales.

Each pair of adjectives was arranged on a seven-step

continuum. Each scale was rated from one to seven. A

score of one represented an extremely unfavorable attitude

score; four represented a neutral attitude; and seven repre-

sented an extremely favorable attitude score. When the ten

evaluative scales were summed, a score ranging from ten to

seventy was possible. The semantic differentials are in-

cluded in Appendix C ("Petrified Man"), Appendix F ("Why

I Live at the P.O.), and Appendix I ("Lily Daw and the Three

Ladies"). Each of the semantic differentials was given again

to test retention of attitude at the same time the combina-

tion objective test for retention was given.

Procedures for Collecting Data

To test the reliability of completing in one class

period the experimental presentation, the semantic dif-

ferential, and the objective test, a pilot study was con-

ducted in a high school similar to the high school used

in the study.

Regular senior English classes were selected to receive

the pilot study in the fall of 1977. Class A read silently

"Petrified Man," class B read silently "Why I Live at the

P.O.," and class C read silently "Lily Daw and the Three

52

Ladies." Immediately following each presentation, the objec-

tive test and the semantic differential were given. All

three stories and tests were completed in a maximum forty-

five minute time limit. The live presentation and the

video-tape presentation of each story were not incorporated

in the pilot study. Since the presentation of each story

was timed to a specific video-tape time limit, the time

remained constant with each performance, thus eliminating

the need for confirmation in a pilot study. The average

presentation time for each of the three stories was twenty-

five minutes. The average combined test time was ten

minutes each for the objective test and the semantic dif-

ferential.

The classes used from the high school and university

in the study were drawn from a list of numbers of class-

rooms. Prior arrangements with the principal of the high

school and the chairmen of the high school and the univer-

sity English departments made possible the availability of

classes to be used for the study. The chairman of the

English department in the high school supplied the list

of classrooms. A university class schedule was the source

of classrooms for the university classes. The numbers of

the classrooms were placed in a container and thoroughly

mixed. The first four classroom numbers drawn were used

for the study. The first classroom number drawn was desig-

nated W, the second X, the third Y, and the fourth Z. After

53

a classroom number was drawn, it was replaced in the container

for the next drawing to reduce biased sampling.

The schedule for the two high school grades is shown

in Table II. The same process was followed for the choice

of the university classes except that regular freshman classes

were drawn from a list of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

classes. The university schedule is shown in Table IV.

The actual schedule for the high school, according to class

period is shown in Table III.

TABLE II

SCHEDULE FOR PRESENTATION TO HIGH SCHOOLJUNIOR AND SENIOR CLASSES

Story I Story II Story IIIPeriod Class Tuesday Thursday

2 11W Silent Reading Readers Theatre Video-tape

3 liX Readers Theatre Video-tape Silent Reading

1 llY Video-tape Silent Reading Readers Theatre

5 l1Z Color Color (Monday) Color

4 12W Silent Reading Readers Theatre Video-tape

5 12X Readers Theatre Video-tape Silent Reading

6 12Y Video-tape Silent Reading Readers Theatre

3 12Z Color Color (Monday) Color

Only Z received color video-tape on Monday. The color

tape was scheduled in this manner to reduce the conflict on

Wednesday when both junior and senior grades would have re-

quired the video equipment at the same hour.

54

TABLE III

SCHEDULE FOR STUDY ACCORDING TOHIGH SCHOOL PERIODS

Period Class

1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . lY

2 . . . . . . . . . . . . ..11W

3 . . . . . . . . . . . . .llXand12Z

4......... . . . . . . .12W

5 .-........... .12X and11Z

6 . . . . . . . . . . . . .12Y

Both 11X and 12Z were third period classes, and both 11Z

and 12X were fifth period classes. This necessitated training

the classroom teacher of 11Z and 12Z to administer the study.

On Monday, the first day the study was run for 11Z and 12Z,

the investigator was able to administer the study and use

that period to train the classroom teacher.

TABLE IV

SCHEDULE FOR PRESENTATION TOUNIVERSITY CLASSES

Story I Story II Story III

Period Class Monday Wednesday Friday

1 Freshman W Silent Reading Readers Theatre Video-tape

3 Freshman X Readers Theatre Video-tape Silent Reading

4 Freshman Y Video-tape Silent Reading Readers Theatre

7 Freshman Z iColor Video Color Video jColor Video

55

The order in which the stories would be presented in the

study was determined by drawing the names of the stories from

a container. "Petrified Man" was drawn as Story I, "Why I

Live at the P.O." was drawn as Story II, and "Lily Daw and the

Three Ladies" was presented as Story III.

The study was administered at the high school on October

10, 11, 12, and 13, 1977. The following week , October 17,

19, and 21, 1977, the study was administered at the univer-

sity. On October 20, 1977, the retention tests were given

to the high school students. A Thursday was chosen for the

retention test to avoid conflict with the study at the uni-

versity level. On October 28, 1977, the following Friday,

the follow-up tests were given to the university classes.

A make-up test was not feasible at the next class sec-

tion for the subjects who missed the retention tests. Regular

classroom activities would have been disrupted with the

administration of a make-up test. The factor of contamina-

tion from the students who had received the tests the day

before was also a consideration in the decision not to admin-

ister make-up tests.

To insure that there was no bias toward any one story

or technique, all introductions of the day's activity were

read aloud. The introduction was as follows:

This is the first of three short stories to be seen

or read in this class. I would like for you to read

silently "Petrified Man" by Eudora Welty. As soon as

you finish reading, turn your story over. You will

be given two tests over the material. The first test

is multiple choice over the content of the story.

Upon completion of the multiple choice test, turn it

56

over. You will then be given a second test. It is ascale to measure your attitude toward the story. Whenyou finish, turn your papers over and sit quietly untilevery one is finished. The grades on these tests willnot affect your grade in this class, but please do aswell as you can. You will be informed at a later datethe results of the study. Now, read.

The first two sentences were changed for the second and third

story and Readers Theatre and video-tape presentations. The

first sentence read, "This is the second short story," or "This

is the third short story," depending on the story. The title

was changed to fit the story. The second sentence was changed

for the Readers Theatre and video-tape presentations to read,

"I would like for you to watch and listen to." The introduc-

tion to the retention test was as follows:

You will be given two types of tests to check your re-tention of each Eudora Welty short story. Upon com-pletion of the multiple choice test, turn it over.You will then be given a second type of test. It isa scale to measure your attitude toward each story.When you finish, turn your papers over and sit quietlyuntil every one is finished. The grades on these testswill not affect your grade in this class, but please doas well as you can. You will be informed at a laterdate of the results of the study.

The directions for the test procedure were printed on the

test papers.

Teachers of the classrooms included in the experimental

study had been asked in advance not to make reference to the

stories to be used in the study. They were asked not to make

announcements or requests for responses to the different tech-

niques and testing instruments. The teachers were discouraged

from discussing the study with the class until after the re-

tention test was given.

57

After the study was completed, the papers were matched

according to the names on the papers. To be included in the

statistical data, each student was to have completed three

tests on comprehension, three semantic differentials, one ob-

jective retention test, and three follow-up semantic differentials.

If a student missed any one of the presentations or retention

tests, that student's papers were discarded, and the data were

not used. From a total of three hundred-two students tested,

one hundred eighty-seven received all presentations and tests.

One hundred fifteen participants had to be discarded for lack

of complete data.

The participants in the presentation of each short story

for the study were selected in order to achieve nearly-equal

ability in performance. The cast of the "Petrified Man" was

comprised of one male and two females. The cast of "Why I

Live at the P.O." was made up of two males and three females.

"Lily Daw and the Three Ladies" had a cast of one male and

four females. Cast members used in the presentation of each

story were different from those used in the other two story

presentations. This procedure was implemented to reduce dif-

ferent responses to variables of personality, appearance, and

enthusiasm of the performers.

The presentation of Story I on one day, Story II on a

second day, and Story III on another assured that students

who participated in the live presentation had to miss only

one day of university classes for the high school experi-

mental treatment. Performances for the junior and senior

58

classes were made on the same day. Only one of the scheduled

university class periods was missed by the Readers Theatre

casts for the presentation to the university class used in

the study. Students in the live presentation of a story

were also in the video-tape presentation. This allowed for

one cast to be directed in only one story.

There were thirteen university students involved with

the presentation of the stories. "Petrified Man" had a

cast of three. "Why I Live at the P.O." and "Lily Daw and

the Three Ladies" each had a cast of five. The casts were

asked to participate in the study on a voluntary basis.

Each cast was made up of freshman students, except for

one theatrically-experienced upper classman in each short-

story cast. The freshmen were chosen from one class which was

at a time expedient for contact with the participants. The

first meeting of the cast members was held on September 12,

1977. Cast members were informed as to the purposes of the

study, and a daily rehearsal schedule was set for each cast.

The rehearsal schedule included a Saturday or Sunday rehear-

sal. The rehearsal period consisted of one-hour rehearsal

blocks for nineteen days, or three weeks. A longer rehearsal

time was scheduled for week-end rehearsals.

On October 4, 1977, "Petrified Man" was video-taped.

On October 5, 1977, "Why I Live at the P.O." was taped,

and "Lily Daw and the Three Ladies" was taped on October 6,

1977. Rehearsal time and stage direction had been planned

to accomodate the thirty minute time factor of the tape and

59

the floor measurements of the media studio. Only one camera

was used in taping. It remained in a stationary position

and no special camera shots were directed. Each taping ses-

sion lasted approximately forty-five minutes with warm-ups

and camera adjustments included.

The short stories were adapted following the general

principles of oral interpretation. Certain deletions or

rearrangements of passages, dialogue tags, and directions

were made to fit the alloted time of the video-tape. Dele-

tions and rearrangements which were made for the performance

scripts also were made in the stories as they were used

for silent reading. The deletions were designed to insure

that the original intention of the author was maintained.

The adapted stories and performance scripts appear in Ap-

pendices A, B, D, E, G, and H.

The criteria for level of competence for Readers Theatre

and video-tape Readers Theatre consisted of three elements

of performance:

Participants will demonstrate an ability to

1. Maintain eye contact with audience,2. Move to directed positions without hesitation,3. Build textual materials to a climax,4. Focus attention on material rather than on tech-

niques of presentation,5. Re-create the literary work of the author with

attention focused on authors' original intention.

The level of presentation was determined by the director.

All readers were given small, black notebooks in which

to hold the scripts. Stools were the only props used in the

performances. Two stools were used for the "Petrified Man,"

60

four stools were used for "Why I Live at the P.O.," and four

stools were used for "Lily Daw and the Three Ladies." No

attempt was made to costume the performers. Movement was

limited to the camera-angle span for the video-taping. The

same stage directions were used for the live presentation,

but wider and more extensive movement was included to utilize

the space in front of a classroom. The movements covered

more space, but were basically the same as those used for

the video-tape.

Procedures for Analysis of Data

After the data had been collected, the scores for silent

reading were pooled, the scores for Readers Theatre were

pooled, and the scores for video-taped Readers Theatre were

pooled for all grades. The pooling of scores was acceptable

since it was the specific technique of presentation that was

being tested.

The first six hypotheses were tested to determine sig-

nificance by finding the mean and standard deviation of each

technique. Hypothesis Seven was tested by comparing mean

and standard deviation of black and white video-tape with

mean and standard deviation of color video-tape. The means

and standard deviations of each grade level were compared

to each technique.

Each hypothesis was tested in the null form by analysis

of variance. The level of significance was reported. If the

F obtained was significant, a Scheffe F test was utilized to

determine where the difference was to be found.

CHAPTER IV

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

In order to investigate the effectiveness of three

techniques of teaching literature in student achievement

and attitude toward literature, this study employed an ex-

perimental design to provide data on silent reading, Readers

Theatre, and video-taped interpretations of literary selec-

tions. It was hypothesized that the technique of Readers

Theatre would result in the highest mean scores on both

achievement and attitude of students, as well as retention

of achievement and attitudes.

1. When students were taught by A*,

(a) they would achieve significantly higher mean

scores on an achievement test than when they

were taught by B;

(b) they would achieve significantly higher mean


were taught by C.

2. When students were taught by B, they would achieve

significantly higher mean scores on an achievement

test than when they were taught by C.

*A-- Live presentation of Readers TheatreB--Video-tape black and white presentation of Readers

TheatreC--Individual acquisition by silent readingD--Video-tape color presentation of Readers Theatre

61

62



scores on an attitude-scale test than when

they were taught by B;



they were taught by C.


significantly higher mean scores on an attitude-

scale test than when they were taught by C.



scores on retention tests (achievement, attitude)

than when they were taught by B;


scores on retention tests than when they were

taught by C.


significantly higher mean socres on retention tests

(achievement, attitude) than when they were taught

by C.

7. When students were taught by D,



were taught by B;



they were taught by B;

63

(c) they would achieve significantly higher reten-

tion mean scores on an achievement test than

when they were taught by B;

(d) they would achieve significantly higher attitude

mean scores on a retention test than when they

were taught by B.

To test the hypotheses, data were collected, and the

scores for the individual techniques, silent reading,

Readers Theatre, and video-tape were pooled. The hypotheses

were tested in the null by analysis of variance to determine

significance. Within each technique, the mean and standard

deviation scores for each grade level were compared to every

other grade level.

Achievement was tested by a fifteen-item multiple-choice

test administered immediately following each presentation

which was completed during one class period. The number of

observations, the means, and standard deviations for the achieve-

ment tests are shown in Table V.

TABLE V

NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS

FOR THE ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

Technique Number of Mean StandardObservations Deviation

Silent Reading 139 9.77 2.97Readers Theatre 139 9.04 3.07

Video-tape 139 8.03 3.31(Black and White)

64

The mean for each technique was computed from 139 indi-

vidual scores with fifteen possible points on the test. It

should be noted that the mean for silent reading was the

largest and the standard deviation for silent reading was

the smallest. Video-tape black and white produced the smallest

mean and the largest standard deviation.

A summary of the analysis of variance for the achieve-

ment tests is provided in Table VI.

TABLE VI

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCEFOR ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

Source Sums Degrees of Variance FSquares Freedom Estimate Ratio P

Between 212.39 2 106.20 10.91(0.001

Within 4031.34 414 9.74

Total 4243.73 416

Since the F for hypotheses 1 and 2 was significant beyond the

.001 level, the null hypothesis was rejected.

In using the Scheffe F Test, the level of significance

indicates that the techniques of presentation did, in fact,

indicate a difference in comprehension.

65

TABLE VII

SUMMARY OF SCHEFFE F TEST FORACHIEVEMENT TESTS

Silent Reading Readers Theatre Video-Tape

Silent Reading 0.0 1.92 10.82

Readers Theatre 0.00 3.62

Video-tape 0.00(Black and White)

At the .001 level 6.90 is significant. According to the Scheffe

F Test, silent reading was more successful than Readers Theatre

and significantly more successful than black and white video-

tape. Readers Theatre was more successful than black and white

video-tape but not significantly so. The Scheffe F Test re-

sulted in null 1(a) and 1(b) being retained and research

hypotheses 1(a) and 1(b) being rejected. Research hypothesis

2 was rejected. Silent reading was the most effective technique

for comprehension.

The semantic differential used to test the students'

attitude response to the literature consisted of twenty

bipolar adjective scales. The same bipolar adjectives

were used for each story, but the order and poles were rear-

ranged. Only the evaluative scales were considered for

this study. The number of observations, the means, and

standard deviations for the attitude response scales are

shown in Table VIII.

66

TABLE VIII

NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARDDEVIATIONS FOR ATTITUDE RESPONSE SCALES

Technique Number of Mean StandardObservations Deviations

Silent Reading 139 41.04 11.54

Readers Theatre 139 49.37 8.78


The largest mean was for Readers Theatre and the standard

deviation was the smallest. This would seem to indicate

that students "preferred" Readers Theatre over either of

the other techniques. Out of a possible score of 70, the

mean indicates a neutral response to video-tape and only

slightly better response to silent reading.

A summary of the analysis of variance for the attitude

response scales is provided in Table IX.

TABLE IX

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE FORATTITUDE RESPONSE TESTS

Sum ofSquares

13773.04

41423.08

55198.12

Degrees of

Freedom

2

414

416

Variance

Estimate

6886.52

100.06

F

Ratio P

68.82 <.001

Source

Between

Within

Total

, ... .

67

Since the F for research hypotheses 3 and 4 were significant

beyond the .001 level, the null hypotheses were rejected.

The level of significance in using the Scheffe F

Test indicates the techniques did evoke a different atti-

tude response. Table X provides a summary of the Scheffe

F Test.

TABLE X

SUMMARY OF SCHEFFE F TEST FORATTITUDE RESPONSE




Video-tape 0.0

According to the Scheffe F Test, Readers Theatre evoked a

significantly higher attitude response from the students

than did silent reading or black and white video-tape. This

supports the acceptance of hypotheses 3(a) and 3(b). Silent

reading was more acceptable to students than black and white

video-tape; therefore, research hypothesis 4 was rejected.

A combination comprehension test, consisting of all

forty-five questions of the previously-administered objec-

tive achievement tests, was administered seven days following

the last technique presentation. This test was given to

measure retention of achievement. Even though the test items

68

were not grouped by technique and were scrambled throughout

the forty-five item test, items were scored as either silent

reading, Readers Theatreor video-tape, thus resulting in

three separate scores with a possible maximum score of

fifteen for each category. The number of observations,

means, and standard deviations for the retention achievement

test are presented in Table XI.

TABLE XI

NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARD DEVIATIONSFOR RETENTION ACHIEVEMENT TESTS





The ranking of means from highest to lowest for the retention

achievement test held true to the order of ranking of highest

and lowest on the original achievement test. Where silent

reading had the highest mean and smallest standard deviation

on the original achievement test, Readers Theatre had the

smallest standard deviation and silent reading had the highest

mean on the retention achievement test.

A summary of the analysis of variance for the retention

achievement tests is provided in Table XII.

69

TABLE XII

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE FORRETENTION ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

Sum of Degrees of

Degrees of

Freedom

2

414

416

VarianceEstimate

41.85

9.92

FRatio P

4.22 <0.02

The null hypothesis was rejected at the .02 level for research

hypothesis 5 (achievement) and research hypothesis 6 (achieve-

ment).

A summary of the Scheffe F Test is provided in Table

XIII.

TABLE XIII

SUMMARY OF SCHEFFE F TEST FOR RETENTIONACHIEVEMENT TESTS





The summary of the Scheffe F Test indicates the acceptance of

hypothesis 5(a), but it indicates the rejection of 5(b) for

the retention achievement test at the .05 level of significance

Source

Between

Within

Total

Sum ofSquares

83.70

4109.02

4192.71

M_smolow-umm...

70

since 3.00 is significant at the .05 level. Readers Theatre

and silent reading were not significantly different, but each

was significantly different from black and white video-tape.

This necessitated the rejection of hypothesis 6 for the re-

tention achievement test.

The retention tests to measure attitude response were

given at the same time the retention achievement test was

given. The semantic differentials for each story were ad-

ministered for retention of attitude. The number of obser-

vations, means, and standard deviations are provided in

Table XIV.

TABLE XIV

NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARD DEVIATIONSFOR RETENTION ATTITUDE RESPONSE SCALES





The ranking order of the means for the retention atti-

tude response scales holds true to the ranking order of the

original attitude response tests.

The summary of the analysis of variance for the retention

attitude response scale is provided in Table XV.

71

TABLE XV

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE FOR RETENTIONATTITUDE RESPONSE SCALES

Sum of Degrees of

Sum of

Squares,

5715.95

51461.55

57177.50

Degrees of

Freedom

2

414

416

Variance FEstimate Ratio P

2857.97 22.99(0.001

124.30

Since the F for hypotheses 5 (attitude) and 6 (attitude) was

significant beyond the .001 level, the null hypothesis was

rejected (6.91 or above is significant at the .001 level).

A summary of the Scheffe F Test for the retention atti-

tude response scales is indicated in Table XVI.

TABLE XVI

SUMMARY OF SCHEFFE F TEST FOR RETENTIONATTITUDE RESPONSE SCALES





The Scheffe F Test verifies that research hypothesis 5 (atti-

tude) should be accepted and research hypothesis 6 (attitude)

Source

Between

Within

Total

72

should be rejected for the retention attitude response

scales. Readers Theatre was still most "preferred," but

the loss was greater.

Hypothesis 7 was tested by comparing the scores from

the presentation of black and white video-tape to the scores

from the presentation of color video-tape. The number of

observations, the means, and standard deviations for video

achievement tests are shown in Table XVII.

TABLE XVII

NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARDDEVIATIONS FOR VIDEO ACHIEVEMENT TESTS


Black and White 139 8.03 3.31

Color 144 7.64 3.13

The mean for black and white video-tape was higher than

color video-tape, but color video-tape had a smaller

standard deviation.

A summary of the analysis of variance for the achieve-

ment tests of the black and white and color video-tape is

provided in Table XVIII.

73

TABLE XVIII

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OFVIDEO-TAPE ACHIEVEMENT TESTS

Source Sum of Degrees of Variance FSquares Freedom Estimate Ratio P

Between 10.75 1 10.75 1.04<(0.309

Within 2917.11 281 10.38

Total 2927.86 282

The F ratio for the analysis of variance for video-achievement

tests was not significant which resulted in the retention of

the null hypothesis. The mean for color video-tape was not signi-

ficantly higher than the mean for black and white video-tape. This

indicates the need for the rejection of research hypothesis 7(a).

An attitude-scale test was given to the students who re-

ceived color video-tape, and these scores were compared to the

scores of the students who received black and white video-tape.

The number of observations, means, and standard deviations are

shown in Table XIX.

TABLE XIX

NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARDDEVIATIONS FOR VIDEO ATTITUDE SCALE TESTS



Color 144 38.78 9.59

74

This information indicates that color video-tape had a

higher attitude mean than black and white video-tape.

A summary of analysis of variance for the attitude-

scale tests is provided in Table XX.

TABLE XX

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE FORATTITUDE-SCALE TESTS


Between 819.26 1 819.26 9.00<4.003

Within 25569.12 281 90.99

Total 26388.38 288

The summary of the analysis of variance indicates that the

null hypothesis should be rejected; 9.00 is significant at

the .003 level. Color video-tape did achieve a significantly

higher mean than black and white video-tape; therefore,

research hypothesis 7(b) should be accepted.

Retention tests were given to the students who re-

ceived black and white video-tape and to those who received

color video-tape. The scores on the tests were compared.

The number of observations, means, and standard deviations

are shown in Table XXI.

75

TABLE XXI

NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARD DEVIATIONSOF VIDEO RETENTION ACHIEVEMENT TESTS



Color 144 6.60 2.80

The mean for the retention achievement tests of black and

white video-tape was higher than the mean of color video-

tape.

A summary of the analysis of variance for the video

retention achievement tests is shown in Table XXII.

TABLE XXII

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE FORVIDEO RETENTION ACHIEVEMENT TESTS


Between 79.13 1 79.13 8.69 < .004

Within 2559.55 281 9.11

Total 2638.67 282

The F ratio for the analysis of variance for video retention

achievement tests was significant which resulted in the re-

jection of the null hypothesis. The mean for black and white

video-tape was significantly higher than the mean for color

76

video-tape. This indicated the need for the rejection of

research hypothesis 7 (c).

To test the retention of attitudes for video-tape,

attitude-scale tests were given seven days after the com-

pletion of the presentations. The number of observations,

means, and standard deviations for the retention attitude-

scale tests are provided in Table XXIII.

TABLE XXIII

NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARD DEVIATIONSFOR VIDEO RETENTION ATTITUDE-SCALE TESTS



Color 144 36.96 11.15

The mean for color video-tape attitude retention was higher

than the mean of black and white video-tape.

A summary of analysis of variance is shown in Table XXIV.

TABLE XXIV

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE FOR VIDEORETENTION ATTITUDE-SCALE TESTS


Between 223.71 1 223.71 1.82 ( .177

Within 34356.25 281 122.26

Total 34579.96 282

77

The analysis of variance indicates no significant difference

in black and white video-tape attitude retention scores and color

video-tape attitude retention scores. This verifies the reten-

tion of the null and the rejection of research hypothesis 7(d).

After examination of the achievement test, attitude-scale

tests, retention achievement test, and retention attitude scale

tests, a test of significance was computed for the mean differ-

ences by technique. The information was programmed as mean dif-

ferences between achievement test and retention achievement test

and between attitude-scale and retention attitude-scale.

TABLE XXV

SUMMARY OF MEAN DIFFERENCES ON ACHIEVEMENT,ATTITUDE AND RETENTION TESTS

Technique Number of Variable Mean StandardObservations Loss Deviation

139 Achievement-Retention -1.14 1.95

139 AchievementSilent Reading 139 Attitude-

Retention -0.61 8.83139 Attitude


139 AchievementReaders Theatre 139 Attitude-


139 AchievementRetention -0.37 2.15

Video-Tape 139 Achievement(Black & White) 139 Attitude-


78

An examination of the mean differences on achievement and

attitude tests, and the retention tests of these, reveals

information on loss and standard deviations. The greatest

mean loss (-5.17) on Readers Theatre attitude retention as

well as the largest standard deviation (9.71) reveals this

variable incurs the largest variability. However, attitude

retention standard deviation scores of 8.83 (Silent Reading)

and 9.44 (Video-Tape) also indicate a great deal of variability

of scores, even though the mean loss scores on all techniques

are relatively small (Silent Reading Retention Attitude,

-0.61; and Video-Tape Retention Attitude, -0.20). Video-

tape lost the least on both achievement and attitude (-0.37

and -0.20). These scores were the lowest on initial testing,

possibly explaining the low degree of loss on retention testing.

Table XXVI is a summary of analysis of variance for the

difference of means.

TABLE XXVI

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OFTHE DIFFERENCE OF MEANS

Sum of Degrees of Variance FVariable Source Squares Freedom Estimate Ratio P

Between 49.85 2 24.92 5.23<.006Achievement-

Within 1973.04 414 4.77RetentionAchievement Total 2022.88 416

Between 2110.40 2 1055.20 12.12 <.01Attitude,

Within 36042.58 414 87.06RetentionAttitude Total 38152.98 416

79

Analysis of variance indicates that the mean difference be-

tween achievement and retention achievement was significant,

and the mean difference between attitude and retention atti-

tude was significant.

A Scheffe F Test was computed to find the significant

difference. Table XXVII is a summary of the Scheffe F Test

for mean difference.

TABLE XXVII

SUMMARY OF SCHEFFE F TEST MEAN DIFFERENCE

Variable Silent Readers Video-TapeReading Theatre (Black&White)

Silent Reading 0.0 3.48 4.32Achievement-

Readers Theatre 0.00 0.05RetentionAchievement Video-tape 0.00

(Black & White)

Silent Reading 0.0 8.28 0.07Attitude-

Readers Theatre 0.00 9.84RetentionAttitude Video-tape 0.00

(Black & White)

The Scheffe F Test indicates a significant loss between silent

reading and Readers Theatre and video-tape (black and white)

achievement and retention achievement. There was no signifi-

cant loss between Readers Theatre and video-tape (black and

white) achievement. The Scheffe F Test also indicates a sig-

nificant loss for Readers Theatre as compared to silent reading

80

and video-tape (black and white) attitude and retention atti-

tude. There was no significant loss indicated between silent

reading and video-tape (black and white) attitude and retention

attitude mean.

Even though Readers Theatre showed the highest loss in

attitude mean, the mean was still 3.17 points higher than the

attitude scale mean of silent reading and 8.83 points above

the attitude scale mean for black and white video-tape.

The test for differences by technique for black and white

video-tape and color video-tape was programmed as shown in

Table XXVIII.

TABLE XXVIII

MEAN DIFFERENCE OPTION BLACK AND WHITEVS. COLOR VIDEO-TAPE

Technique Number of Variable Mean StandardObservations Loss Deviation


Video-Tape 139 Achievement(Black & White) 139 Attitude-



Video-Tape 144 Achievement(Color) 144 Attitude-


Color video-tape had a greater loss in both achievement and

attitude than did black and white video-tape.

81

A summary of analysis of variance for the difference of

means between video-tape black and white and video-tape color

is provided is Table XXIX.

TABLE XXIX

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE FOR VIDEO-TAPEBLACK AND WHITE AND COLOR MEAN DIFFERENCE

Variable Source Sum of Degrees of Variance FSquares Freedom Estimate Ratio P

Between 31.54 1 31.54 6.22<.0132Achievement-

Within 1425.11 281 5.09RetentionAchievement Total 1456.66 282

Between 186.75 1 186.75 2.12(.146Attitude-

Within 24731.02 281 88.01RetentionAttitude Total 24917.77 282

There was a significant finding in the mean difference in achieve-

ment and retention achievement between black and white video-

tape and color video-tape. The mean difference was not signi-

ficant for black and white video-tape and color video-tape in

attitude and retention attitude.

Although black and white video-tape received a higher mean

on achievement and less loss than color video-tape, color video-

tape evoked a higher mean on attitude tests. The loss on atti-

tude tests for color was greater than for black and white.

Even with the greater loss, the mean for attitude retention

82

with color video-tape was higher than the original attitude

score in black and white video-tape.

After the hypotheses were tested by pooling the scores

for each technique, the mean and standard deviation scores

for each grade level were compared. Table XXX is a summary

of technique, variable, grade, number of observations, means,

and standard deviations.

TABLE XXX

SUMMARY OF TECHNIQUE, GRADE , VARIABLE , NUMBER OFOBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS

Technique Grade Variable Number of Mean StandardObservations Deviation

SilentReading

ReadersTheatre

Video-tape(Black &White)

Video-tape(Color)

High School(Juniors)




AchievementAttitudeRetention-AchievementRetention-Attitude

AchievementAttitudeRetention-Achievement

Retention-Attitude



656565

65

656565

65

656565

65

545454

9.4040.20

8.09

39.28

8.9148.658.26

43.42

7.1833.586.90

34.21

6.8938.465.59

54 35.90

3.1612.493.64

12.61

2.889.572.89

12.27

3.2410.193.11

11.90

3.219.872.65

10.14

83

TABLE XXX--Continued

Technique Grade Variable Number of Mean StandardObservations Deviation

SilentReading

ReadersTheatre


Video-tape(Color)

SilentReading

ReadersTheatre


High School(Seniors)




College(Freshmen)

College(Freshmen)

College(Freshmen)







AchievementAttitudeRetention-Achievement

383838

9.2640.848.58

38 41.58

383838

9.4251.088.92

38 44.24

383838

8.4737.977.84

38 35.87

515151

7.5739.29

6.67

51 37.02

363636

36

363636

10.9742.789.67

41.31

8.8648.898.83

36 45.61

363636

9.0835.898.83

2.9211.412.92

9.75

3.458.222.95

10.84

3.238.402.91

10.18

2.9510.682.67

13.70

2.369.852.53

10.02

3.027.783.19

9.88

3.348.793.45

84

TABLE XXX--Continued

Technique Grade Variable NurObse'

nber of Meanrvation's

V-T (cont.) Retention- 36 36.19 10.10Attitude

Video- College Achievement 39 8.77 3.00tape (Freshmen) Attitude 39 38.56 7.69(Color) Retention- 39 7.92 2.69

AchievementRetention- 39 38.33 8.60Attitude

The high school junior scores were consistent with the pooled

scores for each technique. Silent reading had the highest

mean and Readers Theatre had the lowest standard deviation

for achievement. Readers Theatre for the high school juniors

had the highest mean for attitude and the lowest standard de-

viation of any of the techniques. Silent reading suffered

the greatest loss of the three techniques for retention achieve-

ment. There was a difference found in retention attitude scale

scores from the pooled data. An increase in retention attitude

mean over the original attitude mean was found in high school

junior black and white video-tape. Black and white video-tape

had a higher mean but a higher standard deviation than color

video-tape for the high school juniors achievement test. Color

video-tape had the higher mean and a smaller deviation than

black and white video-tape for the high school juniors atti-

tude tests.

Discrepancies from the pooled data were found at the

high school senior grade level. Readers Theatre had a higher

StandardDevi atiocn

85

mean score on the achievement test than did silent reading,

which was a reverse finding from the pooled finding. Silent

reading did have the smallest standard deviation at the high

school senior level with Readers Theatre having the highest

standard deviation. Readers Theatre at the high school senior

level also had the highest mean for attitude and the smallest

deviation. Readers Theatre had the smallest loss in retention

achievement at the high school grade level, but the greatest

loss for retention attitude. The retention attitude mean in-

creased for silent reading over the original attitude mean

score for the high school senior grade level. Black and

white video-tape had a higher mean than color video-tape

for achievement and a higher standard deviation. Black and

white video-tape had the smaller mean loss for retention achieve-

ment when compared to color video-tape for the high school

seniors. Color video-tape had a higher mean for attitude

than did black and white video-tape and it had a much higher

standard deviation than black and white video-tape. The

findings on the retention attitude test for the high school

senior grade level indicate a greater loss of mean from atti-

tude to retention attitude for color video-tape with an increase

in the standard deviation from attitude to retention attitude.

Silent reading had the highest mean score for the univer-

sity freshman. This mean was higher than the high school

junior mean and than the high school senior mean. This finding

indicates that the university freshman silent reading mean

pulled up the pooled mean score for silent reading. The

86

standard deviation was also the smallest for silent reading

at the university freshman grade level as compared to the

other two grades. A discrepancy was found at the univer-

sity level in the mean scores for Readers Theatre and black

and white video-tape when compared to the pooled technique

data. The findings were reversed. The university freshman

had a higher mean on achievement for video-tape black and

white than Readers Theatre. The standard deviation for black

and white video-tape was higher than the standard deviation

for Readers Theatre. Black and white video-tape mean score

and standard deviation increased from the original attitude

scores to the retention attitude scores. The findings for

the means for achievement, attitude, retention achievement,

and retention attitude for color video-tape at the university

grade level were consistent with the pooled technique data.

In both data the standard deviation increased from attitude

to retention attitude.

From the data available, a breakdown of male and female

scores was possible. Table XXXI provides data by sex for

each technique.

TABLE XXXI

SUMMARY BY TECHNIQUE, SEX, VARIABLE, NUMBER OFOBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS

Number of StandardTechniqueSex Variable Observations Mean Deviation

Silent Male Achievement 76 9.04 3.09Reading Attitude 76 38.47 11.75

Retention- 76 7.87 3.33AchievementRetention- 76 38.05 10.35Attitude

87

TABLE XXXI.--Continued

Technique Sex Variable Number of Mean StandardObservations Deviation

Silent Female Achievement 63 10.65 2.59Reading Attitude 63 44.14 10.55

Retention- 63 9.56 2.89AchievementRetention- 63 43.30 11.63Attitude

The females had higher means and lower standard deviations

on achievement, attitude, and retention achievement variables.

Males had a lower standard deviation on retention attitude than

did the females but the females still had a higher mean than

the males on retention attitude.

An analysis of variance is provided in Table XXXII for

technique and variable by sex.

TABLE XXXII

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE FOR TECHNIQUE ANDVARIABLE OF SILENT READING BY SEX

Technique

SilentReading

SilentReading

SilentReading

Silent

Variable

Achievement

Attitude

RetentionAchievement

RetentionAttitude

Sum ofSource Squares

Between 89.43Within 1129.20Total 1218.63




Degrees of Variance FFreedom Estimate Ratio P

1 89.43 10.85<.001137 8.24138

1 1107.08 8.79%.004137 125.98138

1 98.05 9.96<.002137138

1 949.04 7.92<.006137 119.84138

m......

88

An examination of the F ratios in Table XXXII reveals that

significant differences exist for all silent reading varia-

bles: achievement, attitude, retention achievement, and

retention attitude. The smaller p values for achievement

and retention achievement (p4 .001, p <.002) reveal that

greater differences occur in achievement than in attitude.

The p values for attitude (p <.006) also suggest significant

differences in these technique means.

Table XXXIII is a summary of number of observations,

means, and standard deviations of Readers Theatre by sex.

TABLE XXXIII

SUMMARY OF TECHNIQUE, SEX, VARIABLE, NUMBER OFOBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS


Readers Male Achievement 76 8.91 2.94Theatre Attitude 76 49.14 8.90

Retention 76 8.14 3.05Achievement

Retention 76 42.22 11.18Attitude

Readers Female Achievement 63 9.19 3.22Theatre Attitude 63 49.65 8.70

Retention 63 9.13 2.83AchievementRetention 73 46.60 10.98Attitude

An examination of achievement and attitude and retention of

these with sex as independent variables reveals that females

had higher means on all four variables. The standard deviations

89

were larger for males on all variables except achievement,

where males did have a smaller standard deviation than did

the females. Although the mean scores for all four variables

are similar, the variability of scores of males is larger on

all variables except achievement and the mean scores for fe-

males are higher on every variable.

An analysis of variance is provided in Table XXXIV

for technique and variable by sex.

TABLE XXXIV

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE FOR TECHNIQUEAND VARIABLE BY SEX

Technique Variable Source Sum of Degrees of Variance FSquares Freedom Estimate Ratio P

Readers Achievement Between 92.76 1 2.75 0.29<.59Theatre Within 1294.07 137 9.45

Total 1296.82 138

Readers Attitude Between 8.82 1 8.82 0.11<.74Theatre Within 10619.73 137 77.52

Total 10628.55 138

Readers Retention Between 33.23 1 33.23 3.810.05Theatre Achievement Within 1194.39 137 8.72

Total 1227.63 138

Readers Retention Between 660.67 1 660.67 5.37(.02Theatre Attitude Within 16852.28 137 123.01

Total 17512.95 138

The analysis of variance by sex of Readers Theatre indicate that

the F for achievement and attitude was not significant. The F

was significant for retention achievement and retention attitude.

The highest F ratio of 5.37 on retention attitude indicates a

90

difference significant at the .02 level and the F ratio of

3.81 on retention achievement is significant at the .05 level. Data

in Table XXXIV indicates that female scores on Readers Theatre

are higher, thus retention for females is significant on re-

tention achievement and attitude.

Table XXXV is a summary of number of observations,

means, and standard deviations of video-tape black and

white by sex.

TABLE XXXV

SUMMARY OF TECHNIQUE, SEX, VARIABLE, NUMBER OFOBSERVATIONS, MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS


Video-tape Male Achievement 76 7.78 3.28(Black and Attitude 76 34.54 8.85White) Retention 76 7.11 3.16

AchievementRetention 76 36.46 10.68Attitude

Video-tape Female Achievement 63 8.33 3.36(Black and Attitude 63 36.40 10.19White) Retention 63 8.33 3.20

AchievementRetention 63 33.63 11.19Attitude

The females had higher mean scores on achievement, attitude,

and retention achievement. Males had a higher mean score on

retention attitude than did the females. The males had

smaller standard deviations on all four variables.

An analysis of variance is provided in Table XXXVI for

technique and variable by sex.

91

TABLE XXXVI


Technique Variable Source Sum of Degrees of Variance FSquares Freedom Estimate Ratio P

Video-tape Achievement Between 10.69 1 10.69 0.97<.33(Black and Within 1505.20 137 10.99White) Total 1515.88 138

Video-tape Attitude Between 118.83 1 118.83 1.32<.25(Black and Within 12311.96 137 89.87White) Total 12430.79 138

Video-tape Retention Between 51.95 1 51.95 5.15<.02(Black and Achievement Within 1383.16 137 10.10White) Total 1435.11 138

Video-tape Retention Between 275.02 1 275.02 2.31<.13(Black and Attitude Within 16305.49 137 119.02White) Total 16580.50 138

Analysis of variance on scores for video-tape reveals a signi-

ficant difference only for retention achievement. Analysis of

data for achievement, attitude, and retention attitude reveals

no significant difference although the p of .13 for retention

attitude indicated more variance than .33 for achievement and

.25 for attitude. The females showed a significantly larger

mean score than the males for retention of achievement but the

males showed a significantly larger mean score than the females

for retention of attitude. In fact, the males had a mean in-

crease on retention of attitude over their original attitude

score.

Table XXXVII is a summary of number of observations,

means, and standard deviations of color video-tape by sex.

92

TABLE XXXVII

SUMMARY OF TECHNIQUE, SEX, VARIABLE, NUMBER OFOBSERVATIONS, MEANS, AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS


Video-tape Male Achievement 66 6.89 3.05(Color) Attitude 66 38.10 10.40

Retention 66 6.08 2.71AchievementRetention 66 34.79 12.47

Video-tape Female Achievement 78 8.27 3.08(Color) Attitude 78 39.36 8.87

Retention 78 7.05 2.82AchievementRetention 78 38.80 9.60Attitude

The femaleshad higher mean scores .on attitude, retention

achievement, and retention attitude. The males had a higher

mean score for achievement. The males had smaller standard

deviations for achievement and retention achievement than

did the females.

An analysis of variance is provided in Table XXXVIII

for technique and variable by sex.

TABLE XXXVIII


Sum of Degrees of Variance FTechnique Variable Source Squares Freedom Estimate Ratio P

Video-tape Achievement Between 67.62 1 67.62 7.20(.Ol(Color) Within 1333.60 142 9.39

Total 1401.22 143

93

Technique

Video-tape(Color)

Video-tape(Color)

Video-tape(Color)

Var

Att

RetAch

RetAtt

TABLE XXXVIII--Continued

Sum ofIable Source Squares

:itude Between 56.12Within 13082.20Total 13138.33

:ention Between 34.02iievement Within 1090.42

Total 1124.44

:ention Between 574.00itude Within 17201.75

Total 17775.75

Degrees ofFreedom

1142143

1142143

1142143

Variance FEstimate Ratio P

56.12 0.61<.4492.13

34.02 4.43<-.047.68

574.00 4.74c.03121.14

The analysis of variance indicates significant differences for

achievement (p <.01), retention achievement (p4.04), and re-

tention attitude (p <.03). Analysis of data for attitude re-

veals no significant difference (p&<.44). For all variables

other than attitude, differences do not exist to a significant

degree for color video-tape when the independent variable is

sex.

Summary

An experimental design was employed for this study in

which four experimental treatments were applied in a restricted,

random manner to four naturally-assembled grade groups. Seven

hypotheses were tested. To test the hypotheses, data were col-

lected. The scores were pooled for three techniques: silent

reading, Readers Theatre, and video-tape (both color and black

and white). Analysis of variance was employed to determine

levels of significance. Within each technique, the mean and

...

94

standard deviation scores for each grade level were compared

to every other grade level.

Results of the analysis of variance indicated that the

three techniques of presentation did result in significantly

different comprehension scores. The Scheffe F Test was em-

ployed to determine specific differences. Achievement was

tested by a fifteen-item multiple choice test administered

immediately following each treatment, which was concluded in

one class period.

Attitude scores were obtained by use of a semantic dif-

ferential to indicate response to the literature based on

twenty bipolar adjective scales. The same bipolar adjectives

were used for each story, but the order and poles were rear-

ranged. Only the evaluative scales were considered for this

study.

A combination comprehension test consisting of all forty-

five questions of the previously administered objective tests

was administered seven days after the last technique presenta-

tion. This test was given to measure retention of achievement.

The retention tests to measure attitude response were given at

the same time the retention achievement test was given. The

semantic differentials for each story were administered for

retention of attitude.

An attitude-scale test was given to the students who re-

ceived color video-tape and those scores were compared to the

scores of the students who received black and white video-

tape. Retention tests were given to the students who received

95

black and white video-tape and to those that received color

video-tape. The scores on the tests were compared. After

examination of the achievement test, attitude-scale tests,

retention achievement test, and retention attitude-scale

tests, a test of significance was computed for the mean

differences by technique.

After the hypotheses were tested by pooling the scores

for each technique, the mean and standard deviation scores

for each grade level were compared. The mean and standard

deviation scores for males and females was broken down for

each technique and reported. An analysis of variance was

used to determine significance. If the F level was signi-

ficant, a Scheffe F Test was employed to determine specific

differences.

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS,

RECOMMENDATIONS, AND OBSERVATIONS

Summary

The problem of this study was a comparison of the responses

of students to three techniques of teaching literature. From

this comparison, the most effective of three techniques of

teaching literature was identified. The three techniques

selected for the study were silent reading, Readers Theatre,

and video-tape Readers Theatre. These three techniques were

compared on differences in achievement and attitude response

to literature. Effectiveness of each technique was examined

by noting each grade level and the pooled-technique effective-

ness scores. Also, black and white video-tape scores were

examined in comparison to scores from the presentation of

color video-tape.

The experimental group for this study consisted of four

junior and four senior regular English classes from one sub-

urban high school and freshmen from one four-year state uni-

versity. Three hundred-two subjects were involved in the

study. Complete data were obtained from one hundred thirty-

nine of the subjects for the three techniques, and complete

data were obtained for forty-eight subjects for the color

video-tape technique.

96

97

Seven hypotheses were formulated to fulfill the purposes

of this study. The first six hypotheses were tested to deter-

mine significance by finding the mean and standard deviation

of all grade level scores for each technique. The pooling of

technique scores was adequate, for it was the specific tech-

nique of presentation that was being compared in each instance.

Hypothesis seven was tested by comparing pooled grade-level

technique mean and standard deviation scores of black and white

video-tape to pooled scores of color video-tape. Each hypoth-

esis was tested in the null form by analysis of variance. It

was determined that if the F value of the analysis of variance

was significant, the Scheffe F Test would be used for the first

six hypotheses to determine where the differences occurred.

The results of the tests on each hypothesis are included below.

Findings

The analysis of data resulted in the following findings.

1. The teaching technique of Readers Theatre did not

significantly increase the comprehension of literature of

the selected grade groups.

2. The teaching technique of silent reading produced

significantly higher mean comprehension scores than did either

Readers Theatre or black and white video-tape.

3. Readers Theatre resulted in higher comprehension

scores than did black and white video-tape.

4. Readers Theatre data indicated significantly higher

mean scores on attitude-scale tests than either of the other

techniques.

98

5. Silent reading produced a higher mean score than did

black and white video-tape on the attitude-scale tests.

6. When students were taught by Readers Theatre, they

achieved higher mean scores on a retention achievement test

and on retention attitude-scale than when taught by black

and white video-tape.

7. There was no significant difference between the

Readers Theatre and silent reading groups on the retention

achievement test.

8. Readers Theatre did achieve a significantly higher

mean score on the retention attitude-scale than did silent

reading.

9. Silent reading produced a significantly higher

mean score than did black and white video-tape for retention

of achievement and retention of attitude.

10. There was no significant difference between color

video-tape and black and white video-tape when the criterion

measure was the achievement test.

11. On the retention achievement test the black and white

video-tape group mean exceeded the color mean.

12. Color video-tape achieved significantly higher mean

scores on attitude-scale tests than the other video tech-

nique

13. Retention attitude-scale scoresdid not indicate a

significant difference for color video-tape when compared to

black and white video-tape.

99

14. Silent reading had a higher mean on achievement and

retention achievement than did Readers Theatre and black and

white video-tape at each grade level except for high school seniors.

15. Readers Theatre had a higher mean on attitude-scale

tests and retention attitude-scale tests than did silent

reading and video-tape black and white at each grade level.

16. Silent reading had a higher mean than black and white

video-tape on attitude-scale tests and retention attitude-scale

tests at each grade level.

17. Black and white video-tape had a higher mean than

color video-tape on achievement and retention achievement

tests at each grade level.

18. Color video-tape had a higher mean than black and

white video-tape for attitude-scale scores and retention

attitude-scale scores at each grade level.

19. University freshmen had the highest means on achieve-

ment, attitude, and retention achievement.

20. High school seniors had the highest mean for silent

reading on retention attitude.

21. Readers Theatre produced the highest means for the

high school seniors on achievement, attitude, and retention

achievement.

22. Readers Theatre produced the highest mean for retention

attitude for university freshmen.

23. University freshmen had higher means on all four

variables for black and white video-tape: achievement, atti-

tude, retention achievement, and retention attitude.

100

24. For color video-tape, university freshmen scored

higher means on achievement, retention achievement, and

retention attitude than did the other groups.

25. High school seniors had a higher mean on attitude pro-

duced by Readers Theatre than any other grade for any technique.

26. In examining the mean difference of achievement and

retention achievement with the three techniques, silent reading

suffered the greatest loss, Readers Theatre was second, and

black and white video-tape was third.

27. The mean difference of attitude-scale scores and

retention attitude-scale scores indicated Readers Theatre

suffered the greatest loss, silent reading was second, and

black and white video-tape was third.

28. Even though Readers Theatre suffered the

loss, the mean was still higher than the original mean of

silent reading or black and white video-tape.

29. Color video-tape suffered the greater loss in both

achievement and attitude-scale means as compared to black

and white video-tape.

30. Females had higher means than did males on achieve-

ment tests, attitude-scale tests, and retention achievement

tests.

31. Males had higher means than females on retention

attitude-scale tests.

32. Females showed no loss from achievement tests to re-

tention achievement tests for black and white video-tape.

101

Conclusions

The findings of this study lead to the following con-

clusions.

1. Since silent reading produced significantly higher

scores on comprehension of literature, it may be concluded

that silent reading was the most effective method for achieving

comprehension.

2. Readers Theatre technique is of importance in the

domain of attitude and affect. Despite the ambiguous and

subjective nature of attitude, many teachers insist on the

importance and influence of student attitude in the study of

literature. Readers Theatre would appear to be an effective

technique for improved student attitude toward the study of

literature. This study isolated Readers Theatre as the most

effective teaching technique for attitude response toward

literature.

3. A live presentation is more effective than a taped

performance in creating achievement retention. Research data

from this study has provided evidence that live oral presenta-

tion does have a justified place in the teaching of literature.

4. Taped interpretations of literary works should not

be incorporated as an addition to silent reading when it is

possible to incorporate the live presentation of Readers

Theatre as an enrichment activity.

5. When taped interpretation of literary works are to

be utilized, the effect on attitude will be enhanced by the

use of color tapes rather than black and white.

102

6. Initial attitude response is enhanced by the use of

color video-tape more than by black and white video-tape.

7. High school seniors respond more favorably to

Readers Theatre than to either of the other two techniques.

This technique would greatly enhance the study of literature

for high school seniors, significantly so in the realm of

attitude.

8. University freshmen had a higher mean for retention

attitude for Readers Theatre. The higher levels of maturity

of university freshmen may account for the effectiveness of

both color and black and white video-tape. The novelty of

taped performances may produce greater initial changes in

attitude for high school seniors, while university freshmen

may have additional skills and experience to profit from in-

terpretation even when they are video-taped rather than live.

9. The superior performance of females was independent

of the technique utilized.

Implications

1. The traditional silent reading teaching technique is

still the strongest method of achieving comprehension; how-

ever, to maintain a high interest level by students who

study literature, Readers Theatre teaching technique should

be incorporated. If the purpose of teaching literature is

to present the whole of literary content and give the student

the joy and benefit of a literary experience, this purpose may

be more easily achieved by combining Readers Theatre with

103

silent reading techniques. In this way, students may be pro-

vided the maximum learning and appreciation of literature.

Teachers of English, therefore, should be encouraged to take

advantage of resource persons qualified and experienced in

the methodology of Readers Theatre. Readers Theatre could

provide a method which would apply specifically to the adap-

tation and performance of literature in the classroom.

2. Video-tape black and white and color presentations did

not accomplish the same results in the teaching of literature

as did either live presentation or silent reading. The

achievement and interest level created by live performance

was superior to video-tape presentation. Since video-tape

of a Readers Theatre performance did not prove to be an ef-

fective substitute for live presentation, the teacher of

English should acquire experience or obtain resource persons

to expedite oral techniques for live presentation rather than

rely on video-taped performances. This finding reinforces

the possible need to include this oral method of instruction

in teacher preparation programs.

3. Readers Theatre might also be of value in other academic

classes such as history, geography, economics, and social

studies classes, or in any class in which biographical or

prose materials could provide content for scripts.

4. Since so many students currently are reading on a level

far below grade placement and available class texts, this

use of Readers Theatre might provide increased learning

opportunities for students whose reading skills are weak or

104

for those students whose learning is enhanced by oral pre-

sentation. All students would benefit from the reinforcement

of text materials presented in a different medium, especially

if the presentation were designed to increase interest and

motivation.

Recommendations for Further Study

Questions raised by this study may be investigated by

further research into the most effective technique of teach-

ing literature. From the findings of this study, seven areas

may be cited which warrant further research.

1. Further research is required to investigate the

effects of actual student involvement and participation in

oral presentations as compared to presentations to the class

by an outside group. Deeper understanding and enjoyment of

literature may result for students involved in the recreation

of a literary work by actual participation rather than as

an observer.

2. Another area which requires further research is the

question of retention of both achievement and attitude. This

study incorporated a seven-day span to measure retention. A

long-term retention check after several months may provide

different findings. It would be beneficial to identify the

longer-lasting effects as compared to immediate effects of

each teaching technique.

3. For the purpose of this study, regularly-assembled

English classes, as opposed to honors, low achievers, remedial,

105

college-bound, or any other classifications were selected.

A comparison of the different groupings may prove that dif-

ferent techniques of teaching literature are more effective

with some groups than with other groups. The identification

of differences, if any, could enhance the proficiency of

teaching literature at different learning levels by each

of the techniques.

4. This study examined the effects of teaching liter-

ature; further research. may involve its use in other disci-

plines as well. Results from this type of study may prove

that specific oral techniques should be adopted as teaching

techniques in addition to traditional teaching methods in

other disciplines. If the oral findings found in research

were significant in behalf of oral techniques, then a gen-

eralization could be made that not just teachers of English

should utilize additional oral techniques, but that all

teachers might benefit from methodology in oral presenta-

tion. Non-significant results could indicate that this

type of preparation for teachers might not be profitable.

5. The results of this study indicate a need for a

combination of the traditional teaching methods and oral

presentation techniques. The question that requires further

investigation is whether teachers of literature should re-

ceive preparation in oral presentation or whether the use

of experienced resource persons would prove more valuable.

In order to ascertain the value of oral presentations, a

factor to consider would be specific course objectives and

106

length of the course of study. Further research can provide

enlightment on this issue.

6. In the present era of mechanical sophistication, a

stationary camera with only camera lens span may not adequately

represent the impressions of achievement and attitude response

to literature. Another problem for research would be to use

basically the same format as did this study, with the addition

of camera directions for both black and white and color video-

tape.

7. Since this study did not include a full semester

but only a two-week time period, it is recommended that a

replication of the study be conducted for a semester dura-

tion to ascertain effects, if any, when students become

saturated with Readers Theatre. In this longer study, the

full semester would provide more time for the novelty and

resulting interest in Readers Theatre to diminish.

Observations

Several observations were made during the study that

were not reflected in the statistical data thay may have

affected the results of this study. These observations

possibly should be considered if further research is imple-

mented.

1. It was evident that there was a direct correlation

between classroom control and responsiveness to the study.

It was observed that lack of classroom control resulted in

short attention span, uncooperative attitude, and undisciplined

107

behavior. However, in a controlled classroom, students were

able to adjust more quickly to a new teaching technique and

were noticeably more responsive.

2. The students were informed of the purposes of the

study after it was administered. Many students reacted verbally

with questions and favorable comments. It was notable that

many expressed the desire to have been informed of the pur-

poses of the study at the beginning for they indicated that

it would have influenced their reactions and answers to tests.

3. In retrospect, it was most difficult to construct

the multiple-choice questions for a grade range from juniors

in high school to university freshmen. A portion of the pro-

blem concerned the choice of regular English classes rather

than college-bound English classes. If college-bound classes

had been selected for the study, the difficulty of test ques-

tions for the groups could have been higher.

4. Observation of the participants during the presenta-

tion of the three techniques revealed that oral presentation

more readily solicits an oral response from an audience. The

participants responded with vocal and facial reactions to

humorous dialogue and actions during Readers Theatre presenta-

tions. In silent reading, vocal reaction to humor in the

stories was not evident in overt expressions.

APPENDIX

109APPENDIX A--ADAPTED SHORT STORY

"PETRIFIED MAN"

Reach in my purse and git me a cigarette without no powder

in it if you kin, Mrs. Fletcher, honey," said Leota to her ten

o'clock shampoo-and-set customer. "I don't like no perfumed

cigarettes."

Mrs. Fletcher gladly reached over to the lavender shelf

under the lavender-framed mirror, shook a hair net loose from

the clasp of the patent-leather bag, and slapped her hand down

quickly on a powder puff which burst out when the purse wasopened.

"Why, look at the peanuts, Leota!" said Mrs. Fletcher inmarvelling voice.

"Honey, them goobers has been in my purse a week if they's

been in it a day. Mrs. Pike bought them peanuts."

"Who's Mrs. Pike?" asked Mrs. Fletcher, settling back.Hidden in this den of curling fluid and henna packs, separatedby a lavender swing-door from the other customers, who were being

gratified in other booths, she could give her curiosity its

freedom. She looked expectantly at the black part in Leota'syellow curls as she bent to light the cigarette.

"Mrs. Pike is this lady from New Orleans," said Leota,

puffing, and pressing into Mrs. Fletcher's scalp with strongred-nailed fingers. "A friend, not a customer. You see, likemaybe I told you last time, me and Fred and Sal and Joe all had

us a fuss, so Sal and Joe up and moved out, so we didn't do a

thing but rent out their room. So we rented it to Mrs. Pike.

And Mr. Pike." She flicked an ash into the basket of dirtytowels. "Mrs. Pike is a very decided blonde. She bought methe peanuts."

"She must be cute," said Mrs. Fletcher.

"Honey, 'cute' ain't the word for what she is. I'm

tellin' you, Mrs. Pike is attractive. She has her a goodtime. She's got a sharp eye out, Mrs. Pike has."

She dashed the comb through the air, and paused drama-tically as a cloud of Mrs. Fletcher's hennaed hair floatedout of the lavender teeth like a small storm-cloud.

"Hair fallin'. "

"Aw, Leota."

"Uh-huh, commencin' to fall out," said Leota.

110

"Is it any dandruff in it?" Mrs. Fletcher was frowning,her hair-line eyebrows diving down toward her nose, and her

winkled, beady-lashed eyelids batting with concentration.

"Nope. Just fallin' out."

"Bet it was that last perm'nent you give me that did it,"

Mrs. Fletcher said cruelly. "Remember you cooked me fourteen

minutes."

"You had fourteen minutes coming' to you," said Leota with

finality.

"Bound to be somethin'," persisted Mrs. Fletcher. "Dan-

druff, dandruff. I couldn't of caught a thing like that from

Mr. Fletcher, could I?"

"Well," Leota answered at last, "you know what I heard in

here yestiddy, one of Thelma's ladies, and I don't mean to in-

sist or insinuate or anything, Mrs.-Fletcher, but.Thelma's lady

just happ'med to throw out--I forgotten what she was talkin'

about at the time--that you was p-r-e-g., and lots of times

that'll make your hair do awful funny, fall out and who knowswhat all."

"Who was it?" demanded Mrs. Fletcher.

"Honey, I really couldn't say," said Leota. "Not that

you look it."

"Where's Thelma? I'll get it out of her," said Mrs.Fletcher.

"Now, honey, I wouldn't go and git mad over a little thing

like that," Leota said, combing hastily, as though to hold Mrs.

Fletcher down by the hair. "I'm sure it was somebody didn'tmean no harm in the world. How far gone are you?"

"Just wait. Was it that Mrs. Hutchinson? All I know is,

whoever it is'll be sorry some day. Why, I just barely knewit myself!" cried Mrs. Fletcher. "Just let her wait!"

There was a child's voice, and the women looked down.

A little boy was making tents with aluminum wave punchers onthe floor under the sink.

"Billy Boy, hon, mustn't bother nice ladies," Leota smiled.

She slapped him brightly. "Ain't Billy Boy a sight? Only three

years old and already just nuts about the beauty-parlor business."

"I never saw him here before," said Mrs. Fletcher.

"He ain't been here before, that's how come," said Leota.

"He belongs to Mrs. Pike. She got her a job but it was Fay's

111

Millinery. He oughtn't to try on those ladies' hats, theycome down over his eyes like I don't know what. They justgit to look riduculous, that's what, an' of course he's gonnaput 'em on: hats. They tole Mrs. Pike they didn't appreciatehim hangin' around there. Here, he couldn't hurt a thing."

"Well! I don't like children that much," said Mrs. Flet-

cher.

"Well!" said Leota moodily.

"Well! I'm almost tempted not to have this one," saidMrs. Fletcher. "That Mrs. Hutchinson! Just looks straightthrough you when she sees you on the street and then spits atyou behind your back."

"Mr. Fletcher would beat you on the head if you didn'thave it now," said Leota reasonably. "After going this far."

"Mr. Fletcher can't do a thing with me."

"He can't!"

"No, siree, he can't. If he so much as raises his voice

against me, he knows good and well I'll have one of my sickheadaches, and then I'm just not fit to live with. And if Ireally look that pregnant already--"

"Well, now, honey, I just want you to know--I habm'ttold any of my ladies and I ain't goin' to tell 'em--even,that you're losin' your hair. You just get you one of themStork-a-Lure dresses and stop worryin'. What people don'tknow don't hurt nobody, as Mrs. Pike says."

"Did you tell Mrs. Pike?" asked Mrs. Fletcher sulkily.

"Well, Mrs. Fletcher, look, you ain't ever goin' to lay

eyes on Mrs. Pike or her lay eyes on you, so what diffuncedoes it make in the long run?"

"I knew it!" Mrs. Fletcher deliberately nodded her headso as to destroy a ringlet Leota was working on behind herear. "Mrs. Pike!"

Leota sighed. "I reckon I might as well tell you. Itwasn't any more Thelma's lady tole me you was pregnant thana bat."

"Not Mrs. Hutchinson?"

"Naw, goodness! It was Mrs. Pike."

"Mrs. Pike!" Mrs. Fletcher could only sputter and letcurling fluid roll into her ear. "How could Mrs. Pike possibly

112

know I was pregnant or otherwise, when she doesn't even know

me? The nerve of some people!"

"Well, here's how it was. Remember Sunday?"

"Yes," said Mrs. Fletcher.

"Sunday, Mrs. Pike an' me was all by ourself. Mr. Pikeand Fred had gone over to Eagle Lake, sayin' they was goin'to catch 'em some fish, but they didn't a course. So we wassettin' in Mrs. Pike's car, it's a 1939 Dodge--"

"1939, eh," said Mrs. Fletcher.

"An' we was gettin' us a Jax beer apiece--that's the beerthat Mrs. Pike says is made right in N.O., so she won't drinkno other kind. So I seen you drive up to the drugstore an'run in for just a secont, leavin' I reckon Mr. Fletcher in thecar, an' come runnin' out with looked like a perscription. SoI says to Mrs. Pike, just to be makin' talk, 'Right yonder'sMrs. Fletcher, and I reckon that's Mr. Fletcher--she's one ofmy regular customers,' I says."

"I had on a figured print," said Mrs. Fletcher tentatively.

"You sure did," agreed Leota. "So Mrs. Pike, she give you

a good look--she's very observant, a good judge of character,cute as a minute, you know--and she says, 'I bet you anotherJax that lady's three months on the way'."

"What gal!" said Mrs. Fletcher. "Mrs. Pike!"

"Mrs. Pike ain't goin' to bite you," said Leota. "Mrs.Pike is a lovely girl, you'd be crazy about her, Mrs. Fletcher.But she can't sit still a minute. We went to the travellin'freak show yestiddy after work. I got through early--nineo'clock. In the vacant store next door. What, you ain'tbeen?"

"No, I despise freaks," declared Mrs. Fletcher.

"Aw. Well, honey, talkin' about bein' pregnant an' all,you ought to see those twins in a bottle, you really owe itto yourself."

"What twins?" asked Mrs. Fletcher out of the side of hermouth.

"Well, honey, they got these two twins in a bottle, see?Born joined plumb together--dead a course." Leota dropped her

voice. "They was about this long an' they had these two headsan' two faces an' four arms an' four legs, all kind of joinedhere. See, this face looked this-a-way, and the other face lookedthat-a-way, over their shoulder, see. Kinda pathetic."

113

"Glah!" said Mrs. Fletcher disapprovingly.

"Well, ugly? Honey, I mean to tell you. Billy Boy, git

me a fresh towel from off Teeny's stack--this 'n's wringin'wet--an' quit ticklin' my ankles with that curler. I declare!

He don't miss nothin'. Well, honey, what Mrs. Pike liked was

the pygmies."

"What does that Mrs. Pike see in them?"

"Aw, I don't know," said Leota. "She's just cute, that's

all. But they got this man, this petrified man, that ever'-

thing ever since he was nine years old, when it goes throughhis digestion, see, somehow Mrs. Pike says it goes to his joints

and has been turning to stone."

"How awful!" said Mrs. Fletcher.

"He could move his head--like this. A course his head

and mind ain't a joint, so to speak, and I guess his stomach

ain't, either--not yet, anyways. But see--his food, he eats

it, and it goes down, see, and then he digests it, and it goes

out to his joints and before you can say 'Jack Robinson', it's

stone--pure stone. He's turning to stone. How'd you like to

be married to a guy like that? All he can do, he can move his

head just a quarter of an inch. A course he looks just terri-ble."

"I should think he would," said Mrs. Fletcher frostily.

"Mr. Fletcher takes bending exercises every night of the world.I make him."

"All Fred does is lay around the house like a rug. I

wouldn't be surprised if he woke up some day and couldn't move.

The petrified man just sat there moving his quarter of an inchthough," said Leota.

"Did Mrs. Pike like the petrified man?" asked Mr. Fletcher.

"Not as much as she did the others," said Leota. "And

then she likes a man to be a good dresser, and all that."

"Is Mr. Pike a good dresser?" asked Mrs. Fletcher skep-tically.

"Oh, well, yeah," said Leota, "but he's twelve or fourteen

years older'n her. She ast Lady Evangeline about him."

"Who's Lady Evangeline?" asked Mrs. Fletcher.

"Well, it's this mind reader they got in the freak show,"

said Leota. "Was real good. Lady Evangeline is her name, and

114

if I had another dollar I wouldn't do a thing but have myother palm read. She had what Mrs. Pike said was the 'sixthmind' but she had the worst manicure I ever saw on a livingperson.

"What did she tell Mrs. Pike?" asked Mrs. Fletcher.

"She told her Mr. Pike was true to her as he could be and

besides, would come into some money."

"Humph!" said Mrs. Fletcher. "What does he do?"

"I can't tell," said Leota, "because he don't work.Lady Evangeline didn't tell me enought about my nature oranything. And I would like to go back and find out some moreabout this boy. Used to go with this boy until he got marriedto this girl. Mrs. Pike thought, just for the hell of it, see,to ask Lady Evangline was he happy."

"Does Mrs. Pike know everything about you already?" askedMrs. Fletcher unbelievingly. "Mercy!"

"Oh, yeah, I tole her ever'thing about ever'thing, fromnow on back to I don't know when--to when I first started goin'out," said Leota. "So I ast Lady Evangeline for one of myquestions, was he happily married, and she says, 'Child, you

ought to be glad you didn't git him, because he's so mercenary.'So I'm glad I married Fred. But I sure would like to go backand have my other palm read."

"Did Mrs. Pike believe in what the fortune-teller said?"asked Mrs. Fletcher in a superior tone of voice.

"Goodness, yes, she's from New Orleans. Ever'body inNew Orleans believes ever'thing spooky. One of 'em in NewOrleans says to Mrs. Pike one summer she was goin' to meetsome grey-headed men, and, sure enough, she says she wenton a beautician convention up to Chicago . ..

"Oh!" said Mrs. Fletcher. "Oh, is Mrs. Pike a beauticiantoo?"

"Sure she is," protested Leota. "She'a a beautician.I'm goin' to git her in here if I can. Before she married.But it don't leave you. She says sure enough, there wasthree men who was a very large part of making her trip whatit was, and they all three had grey in their hair. Billy Boy,

go see if Thelma's got any dry cotton. Look how Mrs. Fletcher'sa-drippin'."

"Where did Mrs. Pike meet Mr. Pike?" asked Mrs. Fletcherprimly.

"On another train," said Leota.

115

"I met Mr. Fletcher, or rather he met me, in a rentallibrary," said Mrs. Fletcher with dignity, as she watchedthe net come down over her head.

"Honey, me an' Fred, we met in a rumble seat eight monthsago and we was practically on what you might call the way tothe altar inside of half an hour," said Leota, and bit a bobbypin open. "Course it don't last. Mrs. Pike says nothin' likethat ever lasts."

"Mr. Fletcher and myself are as much in love as the daywe married," said Mrs. Fletcher bellingerently as Leota stuffedcotton into her ears.

"Now go git under the dryer. You can turn yourself on,can't you? I'll be back to comb you out. Durin' lunch Ipromised to give Mrs. Pike a facial. You know--free. Herbein' in the business, so to speak."

"I bet she needs one," said Mrs. Fletcher, letting theswing-door fly back against Leota.

A week later, on time for her appointment, Mrs. Fletchersank heavily into Leota's chair after first removing a drug-store rental book, called Life Is Like That, from the seat.She stared in a discouraged way into the mirror.

"You can tell it when I'm sitting down, all right," shesaid.

Leota seemed preoccupied and stood shaking out a lavendercloth. She began to pin it around Mrs. Fletcher's neck insilence.

"I said you sure can tell it when I'm sitting straighton and coming at you this way," Mrs. Fletcher said.

"Why, honey, naw you can't," said Leota gloomily. "Why,I'd never know. If somebody was to come up to me on the streetand say, 'Mrs. Fletcher is pregnant!' I'd say, 'Heck, shedon't look it to me.'"

Leota was almost choking her with the cloth, pinning itso tight, and she couldn't speak clearly. She paddled herhands in the air until Leota wearily loosened her.

"Listen, honey, you're just a virgin compared to Mrs.Montjoy," Leota was going on, still absent-minded. She bentMrs. Fletcher back in the chair and, sighing, tossed liquidfrom a teacup on to her head and dug both hands into herscalp. "You know Mrs. Montjoy. Well, honey," said Leota,

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but in a weary voice, "she come in here not the week beforeand not the day before she had her baby--she come in here the

very selfsame day, I mean to tell you. Child, we was allplumb scared to death. There she was! Come for her shampooanf set. Why, Mrs. Fletcher, in an hour an' twenty minutesshe was layin' up there in the Babtist Hospital with a seb'm-pound son. It was that close a shave. I declare, if I hadn'tbeen so tired I would of drank up a bottle of gin that night."

"What gall," said Mrs. Fletcher. "I never knew her atall well."

"See, her husband was waitin' outside in the car, and herbags was all packed an' in the back seat, an' she was all ready,'cept she wanted her shampoo an' set. Her husband kep' coming'in here, scared-like, but couldn't do nothin' with her a course."

"She must of been crazy," said Mrs. Fletcher. "How did

she look?"

"Shoot!" said Leota.

"Well, I can guess," said Mrs. Fletcher. "Awful."

"Just wanted to look pretty while she was havin' her baby,is all," said Leota airily. "Course, we was glad to give thelady what she was after--that's our motto."

"Her husband ought to make her behave. Don't it seemthat way to you?" asked Mrs. Fletcher. "He ought to put hisfoot down."

"Ha," said Leota. "A lot he could do. Maybe some womenis soft."

"Oh, you mistake me, I don't mean for her to get soft--far from it! Women have to stand up for themselves, or there'sjust no telling. But now you take me--I ask Mr. Fletcher'sadvice now and then, and he appreciates it, especially on some-thing important, like is it time for a permanent--not that I'vetold him about the baby. He says, 'Why, dear, go ahead!' Justask their advice."

"Huh! If I ever ask Fred's advice we'd be floatin' downthe Yazoo River on a houseboat or somethin' by this time,"said Leota. "I'm sick of Fred. I told him to go over toVicksburg."

"Is he going?" demanded Mrs. Fletcher.

"Sure. See, the fortune-teller--I went back and had my

other palm read, since we've got to rent the room agin--said

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my lover was goin' to work in Vicksburg, so I don't know whoshe could mean, unless she meant Fred. And Fred ain't workin'here--that much is so.

"Is he going to work in Vicksburg?" asked Mrs. Fletcher.

"Sure. Lady Evangeline said so. Said the future is goingto be brighter than the present. He don't want to go, but Iain't gonna put up with nothin' like that. He says if he goeswho'll cook, but I says I never get to eat anyway--not meals.Billy Boy, take Mrs. Gorver that Screen Secrets and leg it."

"Is that that Mrs. Pike's little boy here agin?" she asked,sitting up gingerly.

"Yeah, that's still him." Leota stuck out her tongue.

"Well! How's Mrs. Pike, your attractive new friend withthe sharp eyes who spread it around town that perfect strangersare pregnant?" she asked in a sweetened tone.

"Oh, Mizziz Pike." Leota combed Mrs. Fletcher's hairwith heavy strokes.

"You act like you're tired," said Mrs. Fletcher.

"Tired? Feel like it's four o'clock in the afternoonalready," said Leota. "I ain't told you the awful luck wehad, me and Fred? It's the worst thing you ever heard of.Maybe you think Mrs. Pike's got sharp eyes. Shoot, there'sa limit! Well, you know, we rented out our room to this Mr.and Mrs. Pike from New Orleans. Well, I kinda fixed up theroom, you know--put a sofa pillow on the couch and then I putsome old magazines on the table."

"I think that was lovely," said Mrs. Fletcher.

"Wait. So, come night 'fore last, Fred and this Mr.Pike, who Fred just took up with, was back from they saidthey was fishin', bein' as neither one of 'em has got ajob to his name, and we was all settin' around in theirroom. So Mrs. Pike was settin' there, readin' a old Start-ling G-Man Tales that was mine, mind you, I'd bought it myself,and all of a sudden she jumps!--into the air--you'd 'a' thoughtshe'd set on a spider--an' says, 'Canfield'--ain't that silly,that's Mr. Pike--'Canfield,' she says 'honey,' she says, 'we're

rich, and you won't have to work.' Not that he turned onehand anyway. Well, me and Fred rushes over to her, and Mr.Pike, too, and there she sets, pointin' her finger at a photoin my copy of Startling=G-Man. 'See that man?' yells Mrs.Pike. 'Remember him, Canfield?' 'Never forgot a face,' saysMr. Pike. 'It's Mr. Petrie, that we stayed with him in the

118

apartment next to ours in Toulouse Street in N.O. for sixweeks. Mr. Petrie.' 'Well,' says Mrs. Pike, like she can'thold out one secont longer, 'Mr. Petrie is wanted for fivehundred dollars cash, for rapin' four women in California,and I know where he is.'"

"Mercy!" said Mrs. Fletcher. "Where was he?"

At some time Leota had washed her hair and now she yankedher up by the back locks and sat her up.

"Know where he was?"

"I certainly don't", Mrs. Fletcher said. Her scalp hurtall over.

Leota flung a towel around the top of her customer's head."Nowhere else but in that freak show! I saw him just as plainas Mrs. Pike. He was the petrified man!"

"Who would ever have thought that!" cried Mrs. Fletchersympathetically.

"So Mr. Pike says, 'Well whatta you know about that,' an'he looks real hard at the photo and whistles. And she startsdancin' and singin' about their good luck. She meant our badluck! I made a point of tellin' that fortune-teller the nexttime I saw her. I said, 'Listen, that magazine was layin'around the house for a month, and there was the freak showrunnin' night an' day, not two steps away from my own beautyparlor, with Mr. Petrie just settin' there waitin'. An' ithad to be Mr. and Mrs. Pike, almost perfect strangers.'"

"What gall," said Mrs. Fletcher. She was only sittingthere, wrapped in a turban, but she did not mind.

"Fortune-tellers don't care. So they're goin' to leavetomorrow, Mr. and Mrs. Pike. And in the meantime I got to keepthat mean, bad little ole kid here, gettin' under my feet ever'minute of the day an' talkin' back too."

"Have they gotten the five hundred dollars' reward al-ready?" asked Mrs. Fletcher.

"Well," said Leota, "at first Mr. Pike didn't want todo anything about it. Can you feature that? Said he kindaliked that ole bird and said he was real nice to !em, lent'em money or somethin'. But Mrs. Pike says, 'You ain't workeda lick in six months, and here I make five hundred dollars intwo seconts, and what thanks do I get for it?' So, theycalled up the cops and they caught the ole bird, all right,right there in the freak show where I saw him with my owneyes, thinkin' he was petrified. He's the one. Did it under

119

his real name--Mr. Petrie. So Mrs. Pike gits five hundreddollars. And my magazine, and right next door to my beautyparlor. I cried all night, but Fred said it wasn't a bit ofuse and to go to sleep, because the whole thing was just asort of coincidence--you know: can't do nothin' about it.He says it put him clean out of the notion of goin' to Vicks-burg for a few days till we rent out the room agin--no tellin'who we'll git this time."

"But can you imagine anybody knowing this old man, that'sraped four women?" persisted Mrs. Fletcher. "Did Mrs. Pikespeak to him when she met !aim in the freak show?"

"I says to her, I says, 'I didn't notice you fallin' onhis neck when he was the petrified man--don't tell me youdidn't recognize your fine friend?' And she says, 'I didn'trecognize him with that white powder all over his face. Hejust looked familiar.' Mrs. Pike says, 'and lots of peoplelook familiar.' Kep' her awake, which man she'd ever knewit reminded her of. So when she seen the photo, it all cometo her. Like a flash. Mr. Petrie. The way he'd turn hishead and look at her when she took him in his breakfast."

"Took him in his breakfast!" shrieked Mrs. Fletcher."Listen--don't tell me. I'd 'a' felt something."

"Four women. I guess those women didn't have thefaintest notion at the time they'd be worth a hundred an'twenty-five bucks a piece some day to Mrs. Pike."

"Not really petrified at all, of course," said Mrs.Fletcher meditatively. "I'd 'a' felt something," she said.

"Shoot! I did feel somethin'," said Leota. "I toleFred when I got home I felt so ,funny. I said, 'Fred, thatole petrified man sure did leave me with a funny feelin'.He says, 'Funny-haha or funny-peculiar?' and I says, 'Funny-peculiar.'" She pointed her comb into the air emphatically.

"I'll bet you did," said Mrs. Fletcher.

They both heard a crackling noise.

Leota screamed, "Billy Boy! What you doin' in my purse?"

"Aw, I'm just eatin' these ole stale peanuts up," said

Billy Boy.

"You come here to me!" screamed Leota, recklesslyflinging down the comb, which scattered a whole ashtrayfull of bobby pins and knocked down a row of Coca-Colabottles. "This is the last straw!"

120

"I caught him! I caught him!" giggled Mrs. Fletcher."I'll hold him on my lap. You bad, bad boy, you! I guessI better learn how to spank little old bad boys," she said.

Leota's eleven o'clock customer pushed open the swing-door upon Leota paddling him heartily with the brush, whilehe gave angry but belittling screamswhich penetrated beyondthe booth and filled the whole curious beauty parlor. Fromeverywhere ladies began to gather round to watch the paddling.Billy Boy kicked both Leota and Mrs. Fletcher as hard as hecould, Mrs. Fletcher with her new fixed smile.

Billy Boy stomped through the group of wild-hairedladies and went out the door, but flung back the words,"If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?"

121

APPENDIX B--READERS THEATRE SCRIPT

PETRIFIED MANby

Eudora Welty

Leota:

Narr.:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Narr.:

Reach in my purse and git me a cigarette without

no powder in it if you kin, Mrs. Fletcher, honey.

I don't like no perfumed cigarettes.

said Leota to her ten o'clock shampoo-and-set

customer.

Mrs. Fletcher gladly reached over to the laven-

dar shelf under the lavendar-framed mirror, shook

a hair net loose from the clasp of the patent-

leather bag, and slapped her hand down quickly

on a powder puff which burst out when the purse

was opened.

Why, look at the peanuts, Leota!

Honey, them goobers has been in my purse a week

if they's been in it a day. Mrs. Pike bougth

them peanuts.

Who's Mrs. Pike?

asked Mrs. Fletcher, settling back. Hidden in

this den of curling fluid and henna packs, sep-

arated by a lavendar swing-door from the other

customers, who were being gratified in other

booths, she could give her curiosity its freedom.

She looked expectantly at the black part of Leota's

yellow curls as she bent to light the cigarette.

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Leota:

Narr.:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Narr.:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Narr.:

Mrs. Pike is this lady from New Orleans. A

friend, not a customer. You see, like maybe

I told you last time, me and Fred and Sal and

Joe all had us a fuss, so Sal and Joe up and moved

out, so we didn't do a thing but rent out their

room. So we rented it to Mrs. Pike. And Mr.

Pike. Mrs. Pike is a very decided blonde. She

bought me the peanuts.

said Leota, puffing, and pressing into Mrs. Flet-

cher's scalp with strong red-nailed fingers. She

flicked an ash into the basket of dirty towels.

She must be cute.

Honey, "cute" ain't the word for what she is. I'm

tellin' you, Mrs. Pike is attractive. She has her

a good time. She's got a sharp eye out, Mrs. Pike

has.

She dashed the comb through the air, and paused

dramatically as a cloud of Mrs. Fletcher's hennaed

hair floated out of the lavender teeth like a small

storm-cloud.

Hair fallin'.

Aw, Leota.

Uh-huh, commencin' to fall out.

Is it any dandruff in it?

Mrs. Fletcher was frowning, her hair-line eyebrows

diving down toward her nose, and her wrinkled,

beady-lashed eyelids batting with concentration.

123

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Narr.:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Nope. Just fallin' out.

Bet it was that last perm'nent you gave me that

did it. Remember you cooked me fourteen minutes.

You had fourteen minutes coming' to you.

Bound to be somethin'. Dandruff, dandruff. I

couldn't of caught a thing like that from Mr.

Fletcher, could I?

Well, you know what I heard in here yestiddy,

one of Thelma's ladies, and I don't mean to in-

sist or insinuate or anything, Mrs. Fletcher,

but Thelma's lady just happ'med to throw out--

I forgotten what she was talkin' about at the

time--that you was p-r-e-g., and lots of times

that'll make your hair do awful funny, fall out

and who knows what all.

Who was it?

Honey, I really couldn't say. Not that you look

it.

Where's Thelma? I'll get it out of her.

Now, honey, I wouldn't go and git mad over a little

thing like that.

Leota said, combing hastily, as though to hold Mrs.

Fletcher down by the hair.

I'm sure it was somebody didn't mean no harm in

the world. How far gone are you?

Just wait. Was it that Mrs. Hutchinson? All I

know is, whoever it is '11 be sorry some day.

124

Narr.:

Leota:

Narr.:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Why, I just barely knew it myself! Just let her

wait!

There was a child's voice, and the women looked

down. A little boy was making tents with aluminum

wave pinchers on the floor under the sink.

Billy Boy, hon, mustn't bother nice ladies.

She slapped him brightly.

Ain't Billy Boy a sight? Only three years old

and already just nuts about the beauty-parlor

business.

I never saw him here before.

He ain't been here before, that's how come. He

belongs to Mrs. Pike. She got her a job but it

was Fay's Millinery. He oughtn't to try on those

ladies' hats, they come down over his eyes like

I don't know what. They just git to look ridic-

ulous, that's what, an' of course he's gonna put

'em on: hats. They tole Mrs. Pike they didn't

appreciate him hangin' around there. Here, he

couldn't hurt a thing.

Well! I don't like children that much.

Well!

Well! I'm almost tempted not to have this one.

That Mls. Hutchinson! Just looks straight through

you when she sees you on the street and then spits

at you behind your back.

125

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Narr.:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Mr. Fletcher would beat you on the head if you

didn't have it now. After going this far.

Mrs. Fletcher can't do a thing with me.

He can't!

No, siree, he can't. If he so much as raises his

voice against me, he knows good and well I'll

have one of my sick headaches, and then I'm just

not fit to live with. And if I really look that

pregnant already--.

Well, now, honey, I just want you to know--I

habm't told any of my ladies and I ain't goin'

to tell 'em--even that you're losin' your hair.

You just get you one of thos Stork-A-Lure dresses

and stop worryin'. What people don't know don't

hurt nobody, as Mrs. Pike says.

Did you tell Mrs. Pike?

Well, Mrs. Fletcher, look, you ain't ever goin'

to lay eyes on Mrs. Pike or her lay eyes on you,

so what diffunce does it make in the long run?

I knew it!

Mrs. Fletcher deliberately nodded her head so

as to destroy a ringlet Leota was working on be-

hind her ear.

Mrs. Pike!

I reckon I might as well tell you. It wasn't any

more Thelma's lady tole me you was pregnant than

a bat.

126

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Narr.:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Not Mrs. Hutchinson?

Naw, Goodness! It was Mrs. Pike.

Mrs. Pike!

Mrs. Fletcher could only sputter and let curling

fluid roll into her ear.

How could Mrs. Pike possibly know I was pregnant

or otherwise, when she doesn't even know me? The

nerve of some people!

Well, here's how it was. Remember Sunday?

Yes.

Sunday, Mrs. Pike an' me was all by ourself. Mr.

Pike and Fred had gone over to Eagle Lake, sayin'

they was goin' to catch 'em some fish, but they

didn't a course. So we was settin' in Mrs. Pike's

car, it's a 1939 Dodge--

1939, eh.

--An' we was gettin us a Jax beer apiece--that's

the beer that Mrs. Pike says is made right in N.O.,

so she won't drink no other kind. So I seen you

drive up to the drugstore an' run in for just a

secont, leavin' I reckon Mr. Fletcher in the car,

an' come runnin' out with looked like a perscrip-

tion. So I says to Mrs. Pike, just to be makin'

talk, "Right yonder's Mrs. Fletcher, and I reckon

that's Mr. Fletcher--she's one of my regular cus-

tomers," I says.

I had on a figured print.

127

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

You sure did. So Mrs. Pike, she give you a good

look--she's very observant, a good judge of char-

acter, cute as a minute, you know--and she says,

"I bet you another Jax beer that lady's three

months on the way."

What gall! Mrs. Pike!

Mrs. Pike ain't goin' to bite you. Mrs. Pike is

a lovely girl, you'd be crazy about her, Mrs.

Fletcher. But she can't sit still a minute. We

went to the travellin' freak show yestiddy after

work. I got through early--nine o'clock. In

the vacant store next door. What, you ain't been?

No, I despise freaks.

Aw. Well, honey, talkin' about bein' pregnant

an' all, you ought to see those twins in a bottle,

you really owe it to yourself.

What twins?

Well, honey, they got these two twins in a bottle,

see? Borned joined plumb together--dead a course.

They was about this long an' they had these two

heads an' two faces an' four arms an' four legs,

all kind of joined here. See, this face looked

this-a-way, and the other face looked that-a-way,

over their shoulder, see. Kinda pathetic.

Glah!

Well, ugly? Honey, I mean to tell you. Billy

Boy, git me a fresh towel from off Teeny's stack

128

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

--this 'n's wringin' wet--an' quit ticklin' my

ankles with that curler. I declare! He don't

miss nothin'. Well, honey, what Mrs. Pike liked

was the pygmies.

What does that Mrs. Pike see in them?

Aw, I don't know. She's just cute, that's all.

But they got this man, this petrified man, that

ever'thing ever since he was nine years old,

when it goes through his digestion, see, some-

how Mrs. Pike says it goes to his joints and has

been turning to stone.

How awful!

He could move his head--like this. A course his

head and mind ain't a joint, so to speak, and I

guess his stomachain't, either--not yet, anyways.

But see--his food, he eats it, and it goes down,

see, and then he digests it and it goes out to his

joints and before you can say "Jack Robinson," it's

stone--pure stone. He's turning to stone. How'd

you like to be married to a guy like that? All

he can do, he can move his head just a quarter of

an inch. A course he looks just terrible.

I should think he would. Mr. Fletcher takes bend-

ing exercises every night of the world. I make

him.

All Fred does is lay around the house like a rug.

I wouldn't be surprised if he woke up some day

129

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

and couldn't move. The petrified man just sat

there moving his quarter of an inch though.

Did Mrs. Pike like the petrified man?

Not as much as she did the others. And then she

likes a man to be a good dresser, and all that.

Is Mr. Pike a good dresser?.

Oh, well, yeah, but he's twelve or fourteen years

older'n her. She ast Lady Evangeline about him.

Who's Lady Evangeline?

Well, it's this mind reader they got in the freak

show. Was real good. Lady Evangeline is her name,

and if I had another dollar I wouldn't do a thing

but have my other palm read. She had what Mrs.

Pike said was the 'sixth mind' but she had the

worst manicure I ever saw on a living person.

What did she tell Mrs. Pike?

She told her Mr. Pike was as true to her as he

could be and besides, would come into some money.

Humph! What does he do?

I can't tell, because he don't work. Lady Evan-

geline didn't tell me enough about my nature or

anything. And I would like to go back and find

out some more about this boy. Used to go with

this boy until he got married to this girl. Mrs.

Pike thought, just for the hell of it, see, to

ask Lady Evangeline was he happy.

130

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Does Mrs. Pike know everything about you already?

Mercy!

Oh, yeah, I tole her ever'thing about ever'thing,

from now on back to I don't know when--to when I

first started goin' out. So I ast Lady Evangeline

for one of my questions, was he happily married,

and she says, "Child, you ought to be glad you

didn't git him, because he' s so mercenary." So

I'm glad I married Fred. But I sure would like

to go back and have my other palm read.

Did Mrs. Pike believe in what the fortune-teller

said?

Goodness, yes, she's from New Orleans. Ever'body

in New Orleans believes ever'thing spooky. One

of 'em in New Orleans says to Mrs. Pike she was

goin' to meet some grey-headed men, and, sure

enough, she says she went on a beautician con-

vention up to Chicago. . . .

Oh! Oh, is Mrs. Pike a beautician too?

Sure she is, she's a beautician. I'm goin' to

git her in here if I can. Before she married.

But it don't leave you. She says sure enough,

there was three men who was a very large part

of making her trip what it was, and they all

three had grey in their hair. Billy Boy, go see

if Thelma's got any dry cotton. Look how Mrs.

Fletcher's a-drippin'.

131

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Narr.:

Leota:

Narr.:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Narr.:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Narr.:

Where did Mrs. Pike meet Mr. Pike?

On another train.

I met Mr. Fletcher, or rather he met me, in a

rental library.

said Mrs. Fletcher with dignity, as she watched

the net come down over her head.

Honey, me an' Fred, we met in a rumble seat

eight months ago and we was practically on what

you might call the way to the altar inside of

half an hour.

Leota bit a bobby pin open.

Course it don't last. Mrs. Pike says nothin' like

that ever lasts.

Mr. Fletcher and myself are as much in love as the

day we married.

Leota stuffed cotton into her ears.

Now go git under the dryer. You can turn yourself

on, can't you? I'll be back to comb you out.

Durin' lunch I promised to give Mrs. Pike a facial.

You know--free. Her bein' in the business, so to

speak.

I bet she needs one.

said Mrs. Fletcher, letting the swing-door fly

back against Leota.

A week later, on time for her appointment,

Mrs. Fletcher sank heavily into Leota's chair

after first removing a drug-store rental book,

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Fletcher:

Narr.:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Narr.:

Leota:

Narr.:

Leota:

called Life Is Like That, from the seat. She

stared in a discouraged way into the mirror.

You can tell it when I'm sitting down, all

right.

Leota seemed preoccupied and stood shaking

out a lavendar cloth. She began to pin it

around Mrs. Fletcher's neck in silence.

I said you sure can tell it when I'm sitting

straight on and coming at you this way.

Why, honey, naw you can't. Why, I'd never

know. If somebody was to come up to me on

the street and say "Mrs. Fletcher is pregnant!"

I'd say, "Heck, she don't look it to me."

Leota was almost choking her with the cloth,

pinning it so tight, and she couldn't speak

clearly. She paddled her hands in the air

until Leota wearily loosened her.

Listen, honey, you're just a virgin compared

to Mrs. Montjoy.

Leota was going on, still absent-minded. She

bent Mrs. Fletcher back in the chair and,

sighing, tossed liquid from a teacup onto her

head and dug both hands into her scalp.

You know Mrs. Montjoy. Well, honey, she come

in here not the week before and not the day

before she had her baby--she come in here the

very selfsame day, I mean to tell you. Child,

133

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

we was all plumb scared to death. There she

was! Come for her shampoo an' set. Why, Mrs.

Fletcher, in an hour an' twenty minutes she

was layin' up there in the Baptist Hospital

with a seb'm-pound son. It was that close a

shave. I declare, if I hadn't been so tired

I would of drank up a bottle of gin that night.

What gall. I never knew her at all well.

See, her husband was waitin' outside in the car,

and her bags was all packed an' in the back seat,

an' she was all ready, 'cept she wanted her

shampoo an' set. Her husband kep' coming' in

here, scared-like, but couldn't do nothin' with

her a course.

She must of been crazy. How did she look?

Shoot!

Well, I can guess. Awful.

Just wanted to look pretty while she was havin'

her baby, is all. Course, we was glad to give

the lady what she was after--that's our motto.

Her husband ought to make her behave. Don't it

seem that way to you? He ought to put his foot

down.

Ha. A lot he could do. Maybe some women is

soft.

Oh, you mistake me, I don't mean for her to

get soft--far from it! Women have to stand

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Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

up for themselves, or there's just no telling.

But now you take me--I ask Mr. Fletcher's advice

now and then, and he appreciates it, especially

on something important, like is it time for a

permanent--not that I've told him about the baby.

He says, "Why, dear, go ahead!" Just ask their

advice.

Huh! If I ever ast Fred's advice we'd be floatin'

down the Yazoo River on a houseboat or somethin'

by this time. I'm sick of Fred. I told him to

go over to Vicksburg.

Is he going?

Sure. See, the fortune-teller--I went back and

had my other palm read, since we've got to rent

the room agin--said my lover was goin' to work

in Vicksburg, so I don't know who she could mean,

unless she meant Fred. And Fred ain't workin'

here--that much is so.

Is he going to work in Vicksburg?

Sure. Lady Evangeline said so. Said the future

is going to be brighter than the present. He don't

want to go, but I ain't gonna put up with nothin'

like that. He says if he goes who'll cook, but

I says I never get to eat anyway--not meals.

Billy Boy, take Mrs. Grover that Screen Secrets

and leg it.

135

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Is that that Mrs. Pike's little boy here again?

Yeah, that's still him.

Well! How's Mrs. Pike, your attractive new friend

with the sharp eyes who spreads it around town that

perfect strangers are pregnant?

Oh, Mizziz Pike.

You act like you're tired.

Tired? Feel like it's four o'clock in the after-

noon already. I ain't told you the awful luck

we had, me and Fred? It's the worst thing you

ever heard of. Maybe you think Mrs. Pike's got

sharp eyes. Shoot, there's a limit! Well, you

know, we rented out our room to this Mr. and Mrs.

Pike from New Orleans. Well, I kinda fixed up

the room, you know--put a sofa pillow on the couch

and then I put some old magazines on the table.

I think that was lovely.

Wait. So, come night 'fore last, Fred and this

Mr. Pike, who Fred just took up with, was back

from they said they was fishin', bein' as neither

one of 'em has got a job to his name, and we was

all settin' around in their room. So Mrs. Pike

was settin' there, readin' a old Startling G-Man

Tales that was mine, mind you, I'd bought it my-

self, and all of a sudden she jumps!--into the

air--you'd 'a' thought she'd set on a spider--

an' says, "Canfield"--ain't that silly, that's

136

Fletcher:

Narr.:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Narr.:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Mr. Pike--"Canfield," she says, "honey," she says,

"we're rich, and you won't have to work." Not that

he turned one hand anyway. Well, me and Fred

rushes over to her, and Mr. Pike, too, and there

she sets, pointin' her finger at a photo in my

copy of Startling G-Man. "See that man?" yells

Mrs. Pike. "Remember him, Canfield?" "Never forget

a face," says Mr. Pike. "It's Mr. Petrie, that we

stayed with him in the apartment next to ours in

Toulouse Street in N.O. for six weeks. Mr. Petrie."

"Well," says Mrs. Pike, like she can't hold out

one secont longer, "Mr. Petrie is wanted for five

hundred dollars cash, for rapin' four women in

California, and I know where he is."

Mercy! Where was he?

At some time Leota had washed her hair and now

she yanked her up by the back locks and sat her

up. Her scalp hurt all over.

Know where he was?

I certainly don't.

Leota flung a towel around the top of her customer's

head.

Nowhere else but in that freak show! I saw him

just as plain as Mrs. Pike. He was the petrified

man!

Who would ever have thought that!

137

Leota:

Fletcher:

Narr.:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

So Mr. Pike says, "Well whatta you know about

that," an' he looks real hard at the photo and

whistles. And she starts dancin' and singin'

about their good luck. She meant our bad luck!

I made a point of tellin' that fortune-teller

the next time I saw her. I said, "Listen, that

magazine was layin' around the house for a month,

and there was the freak show runnin' night an'

day, not two steps away from my own beauty parlor,

with Mr. Petrie just settin' there waitin'. An'

it had to be Mr. and Mrs. Pike, almost perfect

strangers."

What gall.

She was only sitting there, wrapped in a turban,

but she did not mind.

Fortune-tellers don't care. So they're goin' to

leave tomorrow, Mr. and Mrs. Pike. And in the

meantime I got to keep that mean, bad little ole

kid here, gettin' under my feet ever' minute of

the day an' talkin' back too.

Have they gotten the five hundred dollars' reward

already?

Well, at first Mr. Pike didn't want to do anything

about it. Can you feature that? Said he kinda

liked that ole bird and said he was real nice to

'em, lent 'em money or somethin'. She says, "You

ain't worked a lick in six months, and here I make

138

five hundred dollars in two seconts, and what

thanks do I get for it?" So, they called up the

cops and they caught the ole bird, all right,

right there in the freak show where I saw him with

my own eyes, thinkin' he was petrified. He's the

one. Did it under his real name--Mr. Petrie. So

Mrs. Pike gits five hundred dollars. And my mag-

azine, and right next door to my beauty parlor.

I cried all night, but Fred said it wasn't a bit

of use and to go to sleep, because the whole thing

was just a sort of coincidence you know: can't

do nothin' about it. He says it put him clean

out of the notion of goin' to Vicksburg for a

few days till we rent out the room agin--no tellin'

who we'll git this time.

Fletcher: But can you imagine anybody knowing this old man,

that's raped four women? Did Mrs. Pike speak to

him when she met him in the freak show?

Leota: I says to her, I says, "I didn't notice you fallin'

on his neck when he was the petrified man--don't

tell me you didn't recognize your fine friend?"

And she says, "I didn't recognize him with that

white powder all over his face. He just looked

familiar." Mrs. Pike says "and lots of people

look familiar." Kep' her awake, which man she'd

ever knew it reminded her of. So when she seen

the photo, it all come to her. Like a flash.

139

Fletcher:

Leota:

Fletcher:

Leota:

Narr . :

Fletcher:

Narr.:

Leota:

Narr.:

Leota:

Narr.:

Leota:

Mr. Petrie. The way he'd turn his head and look

at her when she took him in his breakfast.

Took him in his breakfast! Listen--don't tell me.

I'd 'a' felt something.

Four women. I guess those women didn't have the

faintest notion at the time they'd be worth a

hundred an' twenty-five bucks a piece some day

to Mrs. Pike.

Not really petrified at all, of course. I'd 'a'

felt something.

Shoot! I did feel somethin'. I tole Fred when

I got home I felt so funny. I said, "Fred, that

ole petrified man sure did leave me with a funny

feelin'." He says, "Funny-haha or funny-peculiar?"

and I says, "Funny-peculiar."

She pointed her comb into the air emphatically.

I'll bet you did.

They both heard a crackling noise.

Billy Boy! What you doin' in my purse?

"Aw, I'm just eatin' these ole stale peanuts up,"

said Billy Boy.

You come here to me!

screamed Leota, recklessly flinging down the comb,

which scattered a whole ashtray full of bobby pins

and knocked down a row of Coca-Cola bottles.

This is the last straw!

140

Fletcher: I caught him! I caught him! I'll hold him on

my lap. You bad, bad boy you! I guess I better

learn how to spank little old bad boys.

Narr.: Leota's eleven o'clock customer pushed open the

swing-door upon Leota paddling him heartily with

the brush, while he gave angry but belittling

screams which penetrated beyond the booth and

filled the whole curious beauty parlor. From

everywhere ladies began to gather round to watch

the paddling. Billy Boy kicked both Leota and

Mrs. Fletcher as hard as he could, Mrs. Fletcher

with her new fixed smile.

Billy Boy stomped through the group of wild-

haired ladies and went out the door, but flung

back the words, "If you're so smart, why ain't

you rich?"

141

APPENDIX C--TESTS FOR "PETRIFIED MAN"

Name

Circle one: Grade 11 12 13 Circle one: Class W X Y Z

Circle one: Male Female

The purpose of this study is to measure your feelingstoward the short story by having you judge it on aseries of scales. There are seven positions on eachscale. Please place an X in the box that best repre-sents your true impression on each scale. The middlebox is neutral.

Example : Happy : : : _: _: : Sad

Slow : : X : : : : Fast

Story I

Petrified Man

1. Good2. Incomplete3. Hard4. Untimely5. Beautiful6. Passive7. Excitable8. Positive9. Boring

10. Serious11. Insensitive12. Dissonant13. Meaningless14. Free15. Successful16. Weak17. Pleasant18. Light19. Worthless20. Delicate

: : : : : : : : Bad

: :CompleteSoft

: : :TimelyUgly

: Active: - Calm

: "NegativeInteresting

: Humorous: " Sensitive

HarmoniousMeaningful

: :ConstrainedUnsuccessful

S: Strong

" ": Unpleasant" : Heavy

: : :ValuableRugged

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Name



The purpose of this test is to measure your comprehen-sion of the short story. There are fifteen multiplechoice questions. Please circle the correct answer.

"Petrified Man"

1. Mrs. Fletcher could give her curiosity its freedom

a. because she was hidden in curling fluid andhenna packs

b. because she was separated by a swing-door fromthe other customers

c. both a and bd. none of the above

2. Mrs. Fletcher thought her hair was falling out

a. from the last permanent when Leota cooked herfor fourteen minutes

b. because of the dandruff she caught from Mr.Fletcher

c. due to her physical conditiond. none of the above

3. Billy Boy was

a. making tents with aluminum wave pinchers onthe floor under the sink

b. only three years oldc. told he shouldn't try on ladies' hatsd. all of the above

4. Mrs. Fletcher was noticed as being pregnant when

a. she wore a Stork-a-Lure figure printb. she went into the drug storec. Leota and Mrs. Pike were in the 1939 Dodged. both b and c

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5. The traveling freak show was

a. where the discovery of the petrified mantook place

b. located in a vacant store next doorc. the home of the pygmie twinsd. none of the above

6. Mrs. Pike did not like the petrified man

a. because he was 12 or 14 years older than shewas

b. because his joints were turned to stone andhe could only move a quarter of an inch

c. because she liked a man to be a good dresserd. because she liked grey haired men

7. Leota met Fred when they were

a. in New Orleans and they were married in halfan hour

b. in the rental library in Vicksburgc. in a rumble seat eight months agod. told by Madame Evangeline that they'd meet

each other in N.O.

8. Mr. Petrie's true identity was discovered by Mrs.Pike in

a. Screen Secrets magazineb. Advice to the Lovelorn magazinec. Startling G-Man magazined. Life Is Like That magazine

9. Leota had promised Mrs. Pike

a. a free facial at noonb. she'd take her into the businessc. she'd comb out her hair since she was in the

business, so to speakd. none of the above.

10. Mrs. Montjoy came for her shampoo and set

a. the day before she had her babyb. an hour and twenty minutes before she had a

sonc. with her bags packed and her husband outside

in the card. both b and c

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11. Mr. Petrie was wanted for

a. raping three women in Californiab. five hundred dollars rewardc. letting people think he was petrifiedd. both a and b

12. Leota is described in the story

a. as working in a booth with a lavender shelfand lavender framed mirror

b. as having a black part with yellow curlsc. as having strong red-nailed fingersd. all of the above

13. Mrs. Fletcher was told by Leota that

a. one of Thelma's ladies said she was p-r-e-gb. Mrs. Hutchinson looks straight through you

and then spits at you behind your backc. both a and bd. none of the above

14. Leota described Mrs. Pike as

a. a very decided blondeb. having a sharp eye outc. a good judge of character and cute as a

minuted. all of the above

15. Mrs. Fletcher told Leota that

a. she didn't like children that muchb. she hadn't told Mr. Fletcher she was preg-

nant yetc. she was almost tempted not to have this oned. all of the above

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APPENDIX D--ADAPTED SHORT STORY

" WHY I LIVE AT THE P.O. "

I was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy and Uncle

Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo just separated from her hus-

band and came back home again. Mrs. Whitaker! Of course I

went with Mr. Whitaker first, when he first appeared here in

China Grove, taking "Pose Yourself" photos, and Stella-Rondo

broke us up. Told him I was one-sided. Bigger on one side

than the other, which is a deliberate, calculated falsehood:

I'm the same. Stella-Rondo is exactly twelve months to the

day younger than I am and for that reason she's spoiled.

So as soon as she got married and moved away from home

the first thing she did was separate! From Mr. Whitaker!Came home from one of those towns up in Illinois and to our

complete surprise brought this child of two.

Mama said she like to made her drop dead for a second."Here you had this marvelous blonde child and never so much

as wrote your mother a word about it," says Mama. "I'mthoroughly ashamed of you." But of course she wasn't.

Stella-Rondo just calmly takes off this hat, I wish youcould see it. She says, "Why, Mama, Shirley-T.'s adopted, Ican prove it."

"How?" says Mama, but all I says was "H'm!" There I was

over the hot stove, trying to stretch two chickens over five

people and a completely unexpected child into the bargain,without one moment's notice.

"What do you mean--'H'm!'?" says Stella-Rondo, and Mamasays, "I heard that, Sister."

I said that oh, I didn't mean a thing, only that whoeverShirley-T. was, she was the spit-image of Papa-Daddy if he'd

cut off his beard, which of course he'd never do in the world.Papa-Daddy's Mama's papa and sulks.

Stella-Rondo got furious? She said, "Sister, I don'tneed to tell you got a lot of nerve and always did have andI'll thank you to make no future reference to my adoptedchild whatsoever."

"Very well," I said. "Very well, very well. Of course

I noticed at once she looks like Mr. Whitaker's side too. That

frown. She looks like a cross between Mr. Whitaker and Papa-Daddy."

"Well, all I can say is she isn't."

"She looks exactly like Shirley Temple to me," says Mama.

146

So the first thing Stella-Rondo did at the table was

turn Papa-Daddy against me.

"Papa-Daddy," she says. "Papa-Daddy!" I was taken com-

pletely by surprise. Papa-Daddy is about a million years old

and's got this long-long beard. "Papa-Daddy, Sister says she

fails to understand why you don't cut off your beard."

So Papa-Daddy l-a-y-s down his knife and fork! "Have

I heard correctly? You don't understand why I don't cut offmy beard?"

"Why," I says, "Papa-Daddy, of course I understand, Idid not say any such a thing, the idea!"

He says, "Hussy!"

I says, "Papa-Daddy, you know I wouldn't any more want

you to cut off your beard than the man in the moon. It wasthe farthest thing from my mind! Stella-Rondo sat there andmade that up while she was eating breast of chicken."

But he says, "So the postmistress fails to understand

why I don't cut off my beard. Which job I got you throughmy influence with the government. 'Bird's nest'--is thatwhat you call it?"

I says, "Oh, Papa-Daddy," I says, "I didn't say anysuch of a thing, I never dreamed it was a bird's nest, I

have always been grateful though this is the next to smallest

P.O. in the state of Mississippi, and I do not enjoy beingreferred to as a hussy by my own grandfather."

But Stella-Rondo says, "Yes, you did say it too. Any-

body in the world could of heard you, that had ears."

"Stop right there," says Mama, looking at me.

So I pulled my napkin straight back through the napkin

ring and left the table.

Mama says, "Call her back, or she'll starve to death,"but Papa-Daddy says, "This is the beard I started growingon the Coast when I was fifteen years old." He would of gone

on till nightfall if Shirley-T. hadn't lost the Milky Wayshe ate in Cairo.

So Papa-Daddy says, "I am going out and lie in the ham-mock, and you can all sit here and remember my words: I'llnever cut off my beard as long as I live, even one inch, andI don't appreciate it in you at all." Passed right by me inthe hall and went straight out and got in the hammock.

147

It would be a holiday. It wasn't five minutes beforeUncle Rondo suddenly appeared in the hall in one of Stella-Rondo's flesh-colored kimonos, all cut on the bias, likesomething Mr. Whitaker probably thought was gorgeous.

"Uncle Rondo!" I says. "I didn't know who that was!Where are you going?"

"Sister," he says, "get out of my way, I'm poisoned."

"If you're poisoned stay away from Papa-Daddy," I says."Keep out of the hammock. Papa-Daddy will certainly beat youon the head if you come within forty miles of him. He thinksI deliberately said he ought to cut off his beard after he gotme the P.O., and I've told him and told him and told him, andhe acts like he just don't hear me. Papa-Daddy must of gonestone deaf."

"He picked a fine day to do it then," says Uncle Rondo,and before you could say "Jack Robinson" flew out in the yard.

What he'd really done, he'd drunk another bottle ofthat prescription. He does it every single Fourth of Julyas sure as shooting, and it's horribly expensive. Then hefalls over in the hammock and snores. So he insisted onzigzagging right on out to the hammock, looking life a half-wit.

Papa-Daddy woke up with this horrible yell and rightthere without moving an inch he tried to turn Uncle Rondoagainst me. All the time he was just lying there swingingas pretty as you please and looping out his beard, and poorUncle Rondo was pleading with him to slow down the hammock,it was making him as dizzy as a witch to watch it. Butthat's what Papa-Daddy likes about a hammock. So Uncle Rondowas too dizzy to get turned against me for the time being.He's Mama's only brother and is a good case of a one-trackmind. Ask anybody.

Just then I heard Stella-Rondo raising the upstairswindow. While she was married she got this peculiar ideathat it's cooler with the windows shut and locked. So shehas to raise the window before she can make a soul hear heroutdoors.

So she raises the window and says, "Oh!" You would havethought she was mortally wounded.

Uncle Rondo and Papa-Daddy didn't even look up, but keptright on with what they were doing. I had to laugh.

I flew up the stairs and threw the door open! I says,"What in the wide world's the matter, Stella-Rondo? You mortallywounded?"

148

"No," she says. "I am not mortally wounded but I wishyou would do me the favor of looking out that window thereand telling me what you see."

So I shade my eyes and look out the window.

"I see the front yard," I says.

"Don't you see any human beings?" she says.

"I see Uncle Rondo trying to run Papa-Daddy out of thehammock," I says. "Nothing more. Naturally, it's so suffo-cating-hot in the house, with all the windows shut and locked,everybody who cares to stay in their right mind will have togo out and get in the hammock before the Fourth of July isover ."

"Don't you notice anything different about Uncle Rondo?"asks Stella-Rondo.

"Why, no, except he's got on some terrible-looking flesh-colored contraption I wouldn't be found dead in, is all I cansee," I says.

"Never mind, you won't be found dead in it, because ithappens to be part of my trousseau, and Mr. Whitaker took se-veral dozen photographs of me in it," says Stella-Rondo. "Whaton earth could Uncle Rondo mean by wearing part of my trousseauout in the broad open daylight without saying so much as 'Kissmy foot,' knowing I only got home this morning after my separ-ation and hung my negligee up on the bathroom door, just asnervous as I could be?"

"I'm sure I don't know, and what do you expect me todo about it?" I says. "Jump out the window?"

"No, I expect nothing of the kind. I simply declarethat Uncle Rondo looks like a fool in it, that's all," shesays. "It makes me sick to my stomach."

"Well, he looks as good as he can," I says. "As goodas anybody in reason could." I stood up for Uncle Rondo,please remember. And I said to Stella-Rondo, "I think Iwould do well not to criticize so freely if I were you andcame home with a two-year-old child I never said a word about,and no explanation whatever about my separation."

"I asked you the instant I entered this house not torefer one more time to my adopted child, and you gave me yourword of honor you would not," was all Stella-Rondo would say,and started pulling out every one of her eyebrows with somecheap Kress tweezers.

149

So I merely slammed the door behind me and went down andmade some green-tomato pickle. Somebody had to do it.

So Mama trots in. "H'm!"

I says, "Well, Stella-Rondo had better thank her luckystars it was her instead of me came trotting in with that verypeculiar-looking child. Now if it had been me that trotted infrom Illinois and brought a peculiar-looking child of two, Ishudder to think of the reception I'd of got.

"But you must remember, Sister, that you were never mar-ried to Mr. Whitaker in the first place and didn't go up toIllinois to live," says Mama. "If you had I would of beenjust as overjoyed to see you and your little adopted girl asI was to see Stella-Rondo, when you wound up with your separa-tion and came on back home."

"You would not," I says.

"Don't contradict me, I would," says Mama.

But I said she couldn't convince me though she talked tillshe was blue in the face. Then I said, "Besides, you know aswell as I do that that child is not adopted."

"She most certainly is adopted," says Mama.

I says, "Why, Mama, Stella-Rondo had her just as sure asanything in this world, and just too studk up to admit it."

"Why, Sister," said Mama. "Here I thought we were goingto have a pleasant Fourth of July, and you start right out notbelieving a word your own baby sister tells you!"

"I," says Mama, "I prefer to take my children's word foranything when it's humanly possible." You ought to see Mama,she weighs two hundred pounds and has real tiny feet.

Just then something perfectly horrible occurred to me.

"Mama," I says, "can that child talk?" I simply had towhisper! "Mama, I wonder if that child can be--you know--inany way? Do you realize," I says, "that she hasn't spokenone single, solitary word to a human being up to this minute?This is the way she looks," I says, and I looked like this.

Well, Mama and I just stood there and stared at eachother. It was horrible!

"I remember well that Joe Whitaker drank like a fish,"says Mama. "I believed to my soul he drank chemicals." And

150

without another word she marches to the foot of the stairs andcalls Stella-Rondo.

"Stella-Rondo? O-o-o-o-o! Stella-Rondo!"

"What?" says Stella-Rondo from upstairs.

"Can that child of yours talk?" asks Mama.

Stella-Rondo says, "Can she what?"

"Talk! Talk!" says Mama. "Burdyburdyburdyburdy!"

So Stella-Rondo yells back. "Who says she can't talk?"

"Sister says so," says Mama.

"You didn't have to tell me, I know whose word of honordon't mean a thing in this house," says Stella-Rondo.

And in a minute the loudest Yankee voice I ever heard inmy life yells out, and then somebody jumps up and down in theupstairs hall. In another second the house would of fallendown.

"Not only talks, she can tap-dance!" calls Stella-Rondo. "Which is more than some people I won't name cando."

"Why, the little precious darling thing!" Mama says, sosurprised. "Just as smart as she can be! Sister, you oughtto be thoroughly ashamed! Run upstairs this instant and apol-ogize to Stella-Rondo and Shirley-T."

"Apologize for what?" says. "I merely wondered if thechild was normal, that's all. Now that she's proved she is, why,I have nothing further to say."

But Mama just turned on her heel and flew out, furious.She ran right upstairs and hugged the baby. She believed itwas adopted. Stella-Rondo hadn't done a thing but turn heragainst me from upstairs while I stood there helpless overthe hot stove. So that made Mama, Papa-Daddy and the babyall on Stella-Rondo's side.

Next, Uncle Rondo.

I must say that Uncle Rondo has been marvelous to me atvarious times in the past and I was completely unprepared tobe made to jump out of my skin, the way it turned out.

But this would be the day he was drinking that prescrip-tion, the Fourth of July.

151

So at supper Stella-Rondo speaks up and says she thinksUncle Rondo ought to try to eat a little something. So fin-ally Uncle Rondo said he would try a little cold biscuits andketchup, but that was all. So she brought it to him.

"Do you think it wise to disport with ketchup in Stella-Rondo's flesh-colored kimono?" I says. Trying to be consider-ate! If Stella-Rondo couldn't watch out for her trousseau,somebody had to.

"Any objections?" asks Uncle Rondo.

"Don't mind what she says, Uncle Rondo," says Stella-Rondo."Sister has been devoting this solid afternoon to sneering outmy bedroom window at the way you look."

"What's that?" says Uncle Rondo. Uncle Rondo has got themost terrible temper in the world. Anything is liable to makehim tear the house down if it comes at the wrong time.

So Stella-Rondo says, "Sister says, 'Uncle Rondo certainlydoes look like a fool in that pink kimono!"

Do you remember who it was really said that?

Uncle Rondo spills out all the ketchup and jumps out ofhis chair and tears off the kimono and throws it down on thedirty floor and puts his foot on it. It had to be sent allthe way to Jackson to the cleaners and re-pleated.

"So that's your opinion of your Uncle Rondo, is it?" hesays. "I look like a fool, do I? Well, that's the last straw.A whole day in this house with nothing to do, and then to hearyou come out with a remark like that behind my back!"

"I didn't say any such of a thing, Uncle Rondo," I says,"and I'm not saying who did, either. Why, I think you lookall right. Just try to take care of yourself and not talk andeat at the same time," I says. "I think you better go liedown.

"Lie down my foot," says Uncle Rondo. I ought to ofknown by that he was fixing to do something perfectly hor-rible.

So he didn't do anything that night. But at 6:30 a.m.the next morning, he threw a whole five-cent package of someunsold one-inch firecrackers from the store as hard as hecould into my bedroom and they every one went off. Not onebad one in the string. Anybody else, there'd be one thatwouldn't go off.

And I'll tell you it didn't take me any longer than aminute to make up my mind what to do. There I was with the

152

whole entire house on Stella-Rondo's side and turned against

me. If I have anything at all I have pride.

So I just decided I'd go straight down to the P.O. There's

plenty of room there in the back, I says to myself.

Well! I made no bones about letting the family catch on

to what I was up to. I didn't try to conceal it.

The first thing they knew, I marched in where they were

all playing Old Maid and pulled the electric oscillating fan

out by the plug, and everything got real hot. Next I snatched

the pillow I'd done the needlepoint on right off the davenportfrom behind Papa-Daddy. I beat Stella-Rondo up the stairs and

inalffy found my charm bracelet in her bureau drawer under a

picture of Nelson Eddy.

"So that's the way the land lies," says Uncle Rondo.

"Well, Sister, I'll be glad to donate my army cot if you

got any place to set it up, providing you'll leave right

this minute and let me get some peace."

"Thank you kindly for thecot and 'peace' is hardly the

word I would select if I had to resort to firecrackers at

6:30 a.m. in a young girl's bedroom," I says back to him."And as to where I intend to go, you seem to forget my posi-

tion as postmistress of China Grove, Mississippi," I says."I've always got the P.O."

Well, that made them all sit up and take notice.

So I hope to tell you I marched in and got the radio,

and they could of all bit a nail in two, especially Stella-

Rondo, that it used to belong to, and she well knew she

couldn't get it back, I'd sue for it like a shot. And I

very politely took the sewing-machine motor I helped pay

the most on to give Mama for Christmas back in 1929, and

a good big calendar, with the first-aid remedies on it.

The thermometer and the Hawaiian ukulele certainly were

rightfully mine, and I stood on the step-ladder and got

all my watermelon-rind preserves and every fruit and veg-

etable I'd put up, every jar. Then I began to pull the

tacks out of the bluebird wall vases on the archway to thedining room.

"Who told you you could have those, Miss Priss?" says

Mama.

"I bought 'em and I'll keep track of 'em," I says."I'll tack 'em up one on each side the post office window,

and you can see 'em when you come to ask me for your mail,if you're so dead to see 'em."

153

"Not I! I'll never darken the door to that post officeagain if I live to be a hundred," Mama says.

"Me either," says Stella-Rondo. "You can just let mymail lie there and rot, for all I care. I'll never comeand relieve you of a single, solitary piece."

"I should worry," I says. "And who you think's going

to sit down and write you all those big fat letters and post-cards, by the way? Mr. Whitaker? Just because he was theonly man every dropped down in China Grove and you got him--unfairly--is he going to sit down and write you a lengthycorrespondence after you come home giving no rhyme nor reasonwhatsoever for your separation and no explanation for the pre-sence of that child? I may not have your brilliant mind, butI fail to see it."

So Mama says, "Sister, I've told you a thousand timesthat Stella-Rondo simply got homesick, and this child is fartoo big to be hers."

Then Shirley-T. sticks out her tongue at me in this per-fectly horrible way. She has no more manners than the man inthe moon. I told her she was going to cross her eyes like thatsome day and they'd stick.

So Papa-Daddy says, "You'll never catch me setting footin that post office, even if I should take a notion into myhead to write a letter some place. I won't have you reachin'out of that little old window with a pair of shears and cuttin'off any beard of mine. I'm too smart for you!"

"We all are," says Stella-Rondo.

So then Uncle Rondo says, "I'll thank you from now on tostop reading all the orders I get on postcards." I says, "Ifpeople want to write their inmost secrets on penny postcards,there's nothing in the wide world you can do about it, UncleRondo."

"And if you think we'll ever write another postcard you'resadly mistaken," says Mama.

"Cutting off your nose to spite your face then," I says."But if you're all determined to have no more to do with theU.S. mail, think of this: What will Stella-Rondo do now, ifshe wants to tell Mr. Whitaker to come after her?"

"Wah!" says Stella-Rondo. I knew she'd cry. She had aconniption fit right there in the kitchen.

"It will be interesting to see how long she holds out,"I says. "And now--I am leaving."

154

"Good-bye," says Uncle Rondo.

"Oh, I declare," says Mama, "to think that a family ofmine should quarrel on the Fourth of July, or the day after,over Stella-Rondo leaving old Mr. Whitaker and having thesweetest little adopted child! It looks like weld all beglad!"

"Wah!" says Stella-Rondo, and has a fresh conniptionfit.

"He left her--you mark my words," I says. "That's Mr.Whitaker. I know Mr. Whitaker. After all, I knew him first.I said from the beginning he'd up and leave her. I foretoldevery single thing that' s happened."

"Where did he go?" asks Mama.

"Probably to the North Pole, if he knows what's goodfor him," I says.

But Stella-Rondo just bawled and wouldn't say anotherword. She flew to her room and slammed the door.

"Now look what you've gone and done, Sister," says Mama."You go apologize."

"I haven't got time, I'm leaving," I says.

"Well, what are you waiting around for?" asks UncleRondo.

So I just picked up the kitchen clock and marched off,without saying "Kiss my foot" or anything, and never did tellStella-Rondo goodbye.

And that's the last I've laid eyes on any of my familyor my family laid eyes on me for five solid days and nights.Stella-Rondo may be telling the most horrible tales in theworld about Mr. Whitaker, but I haven't heard them. As Itell everybody, I draw my own conclusions.

But oh, I like it here. It's ideal, as I've been saying.You see, I've got everything cater-cornered, the way I like it.Radio, sewing machine, book ends, ironing board and that greatbig piano lamp--peace, that's what I like.

Of course, there not much mail. My family are naturallythe main people in China Grove, and if they prefer to vanishfrom the face of the earth, for all the mail they get or themail they write, why, I'm not going to open my mouth. Someof the folks here in town are taking- up for me and some

155

turned against me. I know which is which. There are alwayspeople who will quit buying stamps just to get on the rightside of Papa--Daddy.

But here I am, and here I'll stay. I want the worldto know I'm happy.

And if Stella-Rondo should come to me this minute, onbended knees, and attempt to explain the incidents of herlife with Mr. Whitaker, I'd simply put my fingers in bothmy ears and refuse to listen.

156

APPENDIX E--READERS THEATRE SCRIPT

"WHY I LIVE AT THE P.O."by

Eudora Welty

I: I was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy

and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo just

separated from her husband and came back home

again. Mr. Whitaker! Of course I went with Mr.

Whitaker first, when he first appeared here in

China Grove, taking "Pose Yourself" photos, and

Stella-Rondo broke us up. Told him I was one-

sided. Bigger on one side than the other, which

is a deliberate, calculated falsehood: I'm the

same. Stella-Rondo is exactly twelve months to

the day younger than I am and for that reason

she's spoiled.

So as soon as she got married and moved away

from home the first thing she did was separate!

From Mr. Whitaker! Came home from one of those

towns up in Illinois and to our complete surprise

brought this child of two.

Mama said she like to made her drop dead for

a second.

Mama: Here you had this marvelous blonde child and never

so much as wrote your mother a word about it. I'm

thoroughly ashamed of you.

157

I: But of course she wasn't.

Stella-Rondo just calmly takes off this hat,

I wish you could see it. She says,

Stella: Why, Mama, Shirley-T.'s adopted, I can prove it.

Mama: How?

I: says Mama, but all I says was, "H'm!" There I

was over the hot stove, trying to stretch two

chickens over five people and a completely unex-

pected child into the bargain, without one moment's

notice.

Stella: What do you mean--"H'm!"?

I: says Stella-Rondo, and Mama says,

Mama: I heard that, Sister.

I: I said that oh, I didn't mean a thing, only that

whoever Shirley-T. was, she was the spit-image of

Papa-Daddy if he'd cut off his beard, which of

course he'd never do in the world. Papa-Daddy's

Mama's papa and sulks.

Stella-Rondo got furious! She said,

Stella: Sister, I don't need to tell you you got a lot of

nerve and always did have and I'll thank you to

make no future reference to my adopted child what-

soever.

I: "Very well," I said. "Very well, very well, Of

course I noticed at once she looks like Mr. Whit-

aker's side too. That frown. She looks like a

between Mr. Whitaker and Papa-Daddy."

158

Stella: Well, all I can say is she isn't.

Mama: She looks exactly like Shirley Temple to me.

I: So the first thing Stella-Rondo did at the table

was turn Papa-Daddy against me.

Stella: Papa-Daddy, Papa-Daddy!

I: I was taken completely by surprise. Papa-Daddy

is about a million years old and's got this long-

long beard.

Stella: Papa-Daddy, Sister says she fails to understand

why you don't cut off your beard.

I: So Papa-Daddy 1-a-y-s down his knife and fork!

Papa: Have I heard correctly? You don't understand why

I don't cut off my beard?

I: "Why," I says, "Papa-Daddy, of course I understand,

I did not say any such of a thing, the idea!"

Papa: Hussy!

I: "Papa-Daddy, you know I wouldn't any more want you

to cut off your beard than the man in the moon.

It was the farthest thing from my mind! Stella-

Rondo sat there and made that up while she was

eating breast of chicken."

Papa: So the postmistress fails to understand why I don't

cut off my beard. Which job I got you through my

influence with the government. "Bird's nest"--is

that what you call it?

I: I says, "Oh, Papa-Daddy," I says, "I didn't say

any such of a thing, I never dreamed it was a

159

bird's nest, I have always been grateful though

this is the next to smallest P.O. in the state

of Mississippi, and I do not enjoy being referred

to as a hussy by my own grandfather."

Stella: Yes, you did say it too. Anybody in the world

could of heard you, that had ears.

Mama: Stop right there,

I: says Mama, looking at me.

So I pulled my napkin straight back through the

napkin ring and left the table.

Mama: Call her back, or she'll starve to death.

Papa: This is the beard I started growing on the Coast

when I was fifteen years old.

I: He would of gone on till nightfall if Shirley-T.

hadn't lost the Milky Way she ate in Cairo.

Papa: I am going out and lie in the hammock, and you

can all sit here and remember my words: I'll

never cut off my beard as long as I live, even

one inch, and I don't appreciate it in you at all.

I: Passed right by me in the hall and went straight

out and got in the hammock.

It would be a holiday. It wasn't five minutes

before Uncle Rondo suddenly appeared in the hall

in one of Stella-Rondo's flesh-colored kimonos,

all cut on the bias, like something Mr. Whitaker

probably thought was gorgeous.

160

"Uncle Rondo!" I says. "I didn't know who

that was! Where are you going?"

Uncle: Sister, get out of my way, I'm poisoned.

I: "If you're poisoned stay away from Papa-Daddy,"

I says. "Keep out of the hammock. Papa-Daddy

will certainly beat you on the head if you come

within forty miles of him. He thinks I deliber-

ately said he ought to cut off his beard after he

got me the P.O., and I've told him and told him

and told him, and he acts like he just don't hear

me. Papa-Daddy must be gone stone deaf."

Uncle: He picked a fine day to do it then.

I: and before you could say "Jack Robinson" flew

out in the yard.

What he'd really done, he'd drunk another

bottle of that prescription. He does it every

single Fourth of July as sure as shotting, and

it's horribly expensive. Then he falls over in

the hammock and snores. So he insisted on zig-

zagging right on out to the hammock, looking like

a half-wit.

Papa-Daddy woke up with this horrible yell and

right there without moving an inch he tried to turn

Uncle Rondo against me. All the time he was just

lying there swinging as pretty as you please and

looping out his beard, and poor Uncle Rondo was

pleading with him to slow down the hammock, it

161

was making him as dizzy as a witch to watch it.

But that's what Papa-Daddy like about a hammock.

So Uncle Rondo was too dizzy to get turned against

me for the time being. He's Mama's only brother

and is a good case of a one-track mind. Ask any-

body.

Just then I heard Stella-Rondo raising the

upstairs window. While she was married she got

this peculiar idea that it's cooler with the

windows shut and locked. So she has to raise

the window before she can make a soul hear her

outdoors.

So she raises the window and says,

Stella: Oh!

I: You would have thought she was mortally wounded.

Uncle Rondo and Papa-Daddy didn't even look

up, but kept right on with what they were doing.

I had to laugh.

I flew up the stairs and threw the door open!

I says, "What in the wide world's the matter,

Stella-Rondo? You mortally wounded?"

Stella: No, I am not mortally wounded but I wish you would

do me the favor of looking out that window there

and telling me what you see.

I: So I shade my eyes and look out the window. "I

see the front yard," I says.

Stella: Don't you see any human beings?

162

I: "I see Uncle Rondo trying to run Papa-Daddy out

of the hammock," I says. "Nothing more. Naturally,

it's so suffocating-hot in the house, with all the

windows shut and locked, everybody who cares to stay

in their right mind will have to go out and get in

the hammock before the Fourth of July is over."

Stella: Don't you notice anything different about Uncle

Rondo?

I: "Why, no, except he's got on some terrible looking

flesh-colored contraption I wouldn't be found dead

in, is all I can see," I says.

Stella: Never mind, you won't be found dead in it, because

it happens to be part of my trousseau, and Mr.

Whitaker took several dozen photographs of me in

it. What on earth could Uncle Rondo mean by wear-

ing part of my trousseau out in the broad open

daylight without saying so much as "Kiss my foot,"

knowing I only got home this morning after my

separation and hung my negligee up on the bathroom

door, just as nervous as I could be?

I: "I'm sure I don't know, and what do you expect me

to do about it?" I says. "Jump out the window?"

Stella: No, I expect nothing of the kind. I simply de-

clare that Uncle Rondo looks like a fool in it,

that's all. It makes me sick to my stomach.

I: "Well, he looks as good as he can," I says. "As

good as anybody in reason could." I stood up

163

for Uncle Rondo, please remember. And I said to

Stella-Rondo, "I think I would do well not to

criticize so freely if I were you and came home

with a two-year-old child I had never said a word

about, and no explanation whatever about my separ-

ation."

Stella: I asked you the instant I entered this house not

to refer one more time to my adopted child, and

you gave me your word of honor you would not,

I: was all Stella-Rondo would say, and started pulling

out every one of her eyebrows with some cheap

Kress tweezers.

So I merely slammed the door behind me and

went down and made some green-tomato pickle.

Somebody had to do it. So Mama trots in.

Mama: H'm!

I: I says, "Well, Stella-Rondo had better thank her

lucky stars it was her instead of me came trotting

in with that very peculiar-looking child. Now if

it had been me that trotted in from Illinois and

brought a peculiar-looking child of two, I shudder

to think of the reception I'd of got."

Mama: But you must remember, Sister, that you were never

married to Mr. Whitaker in the first place and

didn't go up to Illinois to live. If you had I

would of been just as overjoyed to see you and

your little adopted girl as I was to see Stella-

164

Rondo, when you wond up with your separation and

came on back home.

I: "You would not," I says.

Mama: Don't contradict me, I would.

I: But I said she couldn't convince me though she

talked till she was blue in the face. Then I

said, "Besides, you know as well as I do that

that child is not adopted."

Mama: She most certainly is adopted.

I: I says, "Why, Mama, Stella-Rondo had her just as

sure as anything in this world, and just too stuck

up to admit it."

Mama: Why, Sister. Here I thought we were going to have

a pleasant Fourth ofJuly, and you start right out

not believing a word your own baby sister tells

you! I, I prefer to take my children's word for

anything when it's humanly possible.

I: You ought to see Mama, she weighs two hundred

pounds and has real tiny feet.

Just then something perfectly horrible occurred

to me.

"Mama," I says, "can that child talk?" I simply

had to whisper! "Mama, I wonder if that child can

be--you know--in any way? Do you realize," I says,

"that she hasn't spoken one single, solitary word

to a human being up to this minute? This is the

way she looks," I says, and I looked like this.

165

Mama:

I:

Mama:

Stella:

Mama:

Stella:

Mama:

Stella:

Mama:

Stella:

I:

Stella:

Mama:

Well, Mama and I just stood there and stared

at each other. It was horrible!

I remember well that Joe Whitaker frequently

drank like a fish. I believed to my soul he

drank chemicals.

And without another word who marches to the foot

of the stairs and calls Stella-Rondo.

Stella-Rondo? O-o-o-o-o! Stella-Rondo!

What?

Can that child of yours talk?

Can she what?

Talk! Talk! Burdyburdyburdybrudy!

Who says she can't talk?

Sister says so.

You didn't have to tell me, I know whose word of

honor don't mean a thing in this house.

And in a minute the loudest Yankee voice I ever

heard in my life yells out, and then somebody

jumps up and down in the upstairs hall. In another

second the house would of fallen down.

Not only talks, she can tap-dance? Which is more

that some people I won't name can do.

Why, the little precious darling thing! Just as

smart as she can be! Sister, you ought to be

thoroughly ashamed! Run upstairs this instant

and apologize to Stella-Rondo and Shirley-T.

166

I: "Apologize for what?" I says. "I merely wondered

if the child was normal, that's all. Now that she's

proved she is, why, I have nothing further to say.

But Mama just turned on her heel and flew out,

furious. She ran right upstairs and hugged the

baby. She believed it was adopted. Stella-Rondo

hadn't done a thing but turn her against me from

upstairs while I stood there helpless over the

hot stove. So that made Mama, Papa-Daddy and the

baby all on Stella-Rondo's side.

Next, Uncle Rondo.

I must say that Uncle Rondo has been marvelous

to me at various times in the past and I was com-

pletely unprepared to be made to jump out of my

skin, the way it turned out.

But this would be the day he was drinking that

prescription, the Fourth of July.

So at supper Stella-Rondo speaks up and says

she thinks Uncle Rondo ought to try to eat a little

something. So finally Uncle Rondo said he would

try a little cold biscuits and ketchup, but that

was all. So she brought it to him.

"Do you think it wise to disport with ketchup

in Stella-Rondo's flesh-colored kimono?" I says.

Trying to be considerate! If Stella-Rondo couldn't

watch out for her trousseau, somebody had to.

Uncle: Any objections?

167

Stella: Don't mind what she says, Uncle Rondo. Sister

has been devoting this solid afternoon to sneering

out my bedroom window at the way you look.

Uncle: What's that?

I: Uncle Rondo has got the most terrible temper in

the world. Anything is liable to make him tear

the house down if it comes at the wrong time.

So Stella-Rondo says,

Stella: Sister says, "Uncle Rondo certainly does look like

a fool in thet pink kimono!"

I: Do you remember who it was really said that?

Uncle Rondo spills out all the ketchup and jumps

out of his chair and tears off the kimono and throws

it down on the dirty floor and puts his foot on it.

It had to be sent all the way to Jackson to the

cleaners and re-pleated.

Uncle: So that's your opinion of your Uncle Rondo, is it?

I look like a fool, do I? Well,s that's the last

straw. A whole day in this house with nothing to

do, and then to hear you come out with a remark

like that behind my back!

I: "I didn't say any such of a thing, Uncle Rondo,"

I says, "and I'm not saying who did, either. Why,

I think you look all right. Just try to take care

of yourself and not talk and eat at the same time,"

I says. "I think you better go lie down."

Uncle: Lie down my foot.

168

I: I ought to of known by that he was fixing to do

something perfectly horrible.

So he didn't do anything that night. But at

6:30 a.m. the next morning, he threw a whole five-

cent package of some unsold one-inch firecrackers

from the store as hard as he could into my bedroom

and they every one went off. Not one bad one in

the string. Anybody else, there'd be one that

wouldn't go off.

And I'll tell you it didn't take me any longer

than a minute to make up my mind what to do. There

I was with the whole entire house on Stella-Rondo's

side and turned against me. If I have anything at

all I have pride.

So I just decided I'd go straight down to the

P.O. There's plenty of room there in the back,

I says to myself.

Well! I made no bones about letting the family

catch on to what I was up to. I didn't try to con-

ceal it.

The first thing they knew, I marched in where

they were all playing Old Maid and pulled the elec-

tric oscillating fan out by the plug, and everything

got real hot. Next I snatched the pillow I'd done

the needlepoint on right off the davenport from

behind Papa-Daddy. I beat Stella-Rondo up the

169

stairs and finally found my charm bracelet in

her bureau drawer under a picture of Nelson Eddy.

Uncle: So that's the way the land lies. Well, Sister,

I'll be glad to donate my army cot if you got

any place to set it up, providing you'll leave

right this minute and let me get some peace.

I: "Thank you kindly for the cot and 'peace' is hardly

the word I would select if I had to resort to

firecrackers at 6:30 a.m. in a young girl's bed-

room," I says back to him. "And as to where I

intend to go, you seem to forget my position as

postmistress of China Grove, Mississippi," I

says. "I've always got the P.O."

Well, that made them all sit up and take

notice.

So I hope to tell you I marched in and got

the radio, and they could of all bit a nail in

two, especially Stella-Rondo, that it used to

belong to, and she well knew she couldn't get

it back, I'd sue for it like a shot. And I

very politely took the sewing-machine motor I

helped pay the most on to give Mama for Christmas

back in 1929, and a good big calendar, with the

first-aid remedies on it. The thermometer and

the Hawaiian ukulele certainly were rightfully

mine, and I stood on the step-ladder and got all

my watermelon-rind preserves and every fruit and

170

vegetable I'd put up, every jar. Then I began

to pull the tacks out of the bluebird wall vases

on the archway to the dining room.

Mama: Who told you you could have those, Miss Priss?

I; "I bought 'em and I'll keep track of 'em," I

says. "I'll tack 'em up one on each side the

post office window, and you can see 'em when you

come to ask me for your mail, if you're so dead

to see 'em."

Mama: Not I! I'll never darken the door to that post

office again if I live to be a hundred.

Stella: Me either. You can just let my mail lie there

and rot, for all I care. I'll never come and

relieve you of a single, solitary piece.

I: "I should worry," I says. "And who you think's

going to sit down and write you all those big fat

letters and postcards, by the way? Mr. Whitaker?

Just because he was the only man ever dropped down

in China Grove and you got him--unfairly--is he

going to sit down and write you a lengthy corres-

pondence after you come home giving no rhyme nor

reason whatsoever for your separation and no ex-

planation for the presence of that child? I may

not have your brilliant mind, but I fail to see

it."

So Mama says,

171

Mama: Sister, I've told you a thousand times that Stella-

Rondo simply got homesick, and this child is far

too big to be hers.

I: Then Shirley-T. sticks out her tongue at me in

this perfectly horrible way. She has no more

manners than the man in the moon. I told her she

was going to cross her eyes like that some day

and they'd stick.

So Papa-Daddy says,

Papa: You'll never catch me setting foot in that post

office, even if I should take a notion into my

head to write a letter some place. I won't have

you reachin' out of that little old window with

a pair of shears and cuttin' off any beard of

mine. I'm too smart for you!

Stella: We all are.

I: But I said, "If you're so smart, where's Mr.

Whitaker?"

So then Uncle Rondo says,

Uncle: I'll thank you from now on to stop reading all

the orders I get on postcards.

I: I says, "If people want to write their inmost

secrets on penny postcards, there's nothing in

the wide wolrd you can do about it, Uncle Rondo."

Mama: And if you think we'll ever write another post-

card you're sadly mistaken.

172

I: "Cutting of f your nose to spite your face then,"

I says. "But if you're all determined to have

no more to do with the U.S. mail, think of this:

What will Stella-Rondo do now, if she wants to

tell Mr. Whitaker to come after her?"

Stella; Wah!

I; I knew she'd cry. She had a conniption fit right

there in the kitchen.

"It will be interesting to see how long she

holds out," I says. "And now--I am leaving."

Uncle: Good-bye.

Mama: Oh, I declare, to think that a family of mine

should quarrel on the Fourth of July, or the

day after, over Stella-Rondo leaving old Mr.

Whitaker and having the sweetest little adopted

child! It looks like we'd all be glad!

Stella: Wah!

I: says Stella-Rondo, and has a fresh conniption fit.

"He left her--you mark my words," I says.

"That's Mr. Whitaker. I know Mr. Whitaker.

After all, I knew him first. I said from the

beginning he'd up and leave her. I foretold

every single thing that's happened."

Mama: Where did he go?

I: "Probably to the North Pole, if he knows what's

good for him," I says.

173

But Stella-Rondo just bawled and wouldn't

say another word. She flew to her room and

slammed the door.

Mama: Now look what you've gone and done, Sister.

You go apologize.

I: "I haven't got time, I'm leaving," I says.

Uncle: Well, what are you waiting around for?

I: So I just picked up the kitchen clock and

marched off, without saying "Kiss my foot" or

anything, and never did tell Stella-Rondo

good-bye.

And that's the last I've laid eyes on any

of my family or my family laid eyes on me for

five solid days and nights. Stella-Rondo may

be telling the most horrible tales in the world

about Mr. Whitaker, but I haven't heard them.

As I tell everybody, I draw my own conclusions.

But oh, I like it here. It's ideal, as I've

been saying. You see, I've got everything cater-

cornered, the way I like it. Radio, sewing machine,

book ends, ironing board and that great big piano

lamp--peace, that's what I like.

Of course, there's not much mail. My family

are naturally the main people in China Grove and

if they prefer to vanish from the face of the

earth, for all the mail they write, why, I'm not

going to open my mouth. Some of the folks here

174

in town are taking up for me and some turned

against me. I know which is which. There are

always people who will quit buying stamps just

to get on the right side of Papa-Daddy.

But here I am, and here I'll stay. I want

the world to know I'm happy.

And if Stella-Rondo should come to me this

minute, on bended knees, and attempt to explain

the incidents of her life with Mr. Whitaker, I'd

simply put my fingers in both my ears and refuse

to listen.

175

APPENDIX F--TESTS FOR "WHY I LIVE AT THE P.O."

Name

Circle one: Grade 11 12 13 Circle one: Class W=X Y Z


The purpose of this study is to measure your feelingstoward the short story by having you judge it on aseries of scales. There are seven positions on eachscale. Please place an X in the box that best repre-sents your true impression on each scale. The middlebox is neutral.

Example: Happy :_ : : _ : X : Sad

Slow : : :X: : : : : Fast

Story IIWhy I Live at the P.O.

1. Untimely : :_:_:_:_: : Timely2. Delicate : : : : : : Rugged

3. Excitable: : : :~:~: : Calm4. Free : : : : : : Constrained5. Unsuccessful : :~:~~:~: : Successful

6. Meaningless :: : : : Meaningful7. Humorous : : : : : . : Serious

8. Incomplete : : : ::: : Complete

9. Light : : : : : Heavy10. Worthless : : : : : .: .: Valuable

11. Harmonious : : : : : : : Dissonant12. Active : : : : : : : : Passive13. Good : : : : : : : Bad

14. Soft : : : : .: .: Hard15. Negative : : : : : : : Positive16. Interesting : : : : .: : Boring17. Insensitive : : : : : : : Sensitive

18. Beautiful : : : .:__: : Ugly19. Unpleasant : : : :__:__: Pleasant20. Strong : : : : : : : Weak

176

Name




"Why I Live at the P.O."

1. This story is set in

a. China Tree, Mississippib. China Grove, Louisianac. China Tree, Louisianad. China Grove, Mississippi

2. Papa Daddy refused to

a. get out of the hammockb. cut off his beardc. both of the aboved. none of the above

3. The story-teller of this story is known to her fam-ily as

a. Shirley-Tb. Sisterc. Stella-Rondod. Mama

4. Stella-Rondo and Shirley-T are related to eachother as

a. Stella-Rondo is to Sisterb. Sister is to Mamac. Mama is to Stella-Rondod. none of the above

5. Stella-Rondo's husband came to town taking

a. pose yourself photosb. a position in the P.O.c. money for add-a-pearl necklacesd. a job with Papa-Daddy

177

6. Shirley-T was

a. a nickname for Shirley Templeb. two years oldc. said to be adoptedd. all of the above

7. Uncle Rondo appeared in the hall

a. in Stella-Rondo's kimonosb. stating he was poisonedc. both of the aboved. none of the above

8. The holiday on which the story happens is

a. The Fourth of Julyb. Christmasc. Labor Dayd. Thanksgiving

9. Uncle Rondo woke sister up at 6:30 in the morningby

a. giving a horrible yellb. sounding as if he was mortally woundedc. saying he was poisonedd. none of the above

10. After Stella-Rondo got married she got the pe-culiar idea that

a. swinging in a hammock is bad luckb. a trousseau should not be worn in broad

daylightc. it is cooler with the windows shut and

lockedd. a separation makes you homesick

11. As the story ends, the storyteller had not seenher family for

a. five weeksb. five monthsc. five daysd. five hours

12. When sister moved into the P.O. she

a. took the radio, sewing machine motor andironing board

b. arranged everything cater-conneredc. took the hand quilts, step-ladder, and army

cotd. both a and b

178

13. Stella-Rondo told

a. sister that Uncle Rondo looked like a foolb. Uncle Rondo that sister said he looked like

a foolc. Papa Daddy that sister said he ought to cut

off his beardd. all of the above

14. When sister decided to leave, the family was

a.b.c.d.

eating supperplaying old maidshooting firecrackersnone of the above

15. Thea.b.c.d.

reason Stella-Rondo came home wasto eat breast of chickento bring Shirley-Tbecause she separated from Mr. Whitakerbecause she was homesick

179APPENDIX G--ADAPTED SHORT STORY

"LILY DAW AND THE THREE LADIES"

Mrs. Watts and Mrs. Carson were both in the post office

in Victory when the letter came from the Ellisville Institute

for the Feeble-Minded of Mississippi. Aimee Slocum, with her

hand still full of mail, ran out in front and handed it straight

to Mrs. Watts, and they all three read it together. Mrs. Watts

held it taut between her pink hands, and Mrs. Carson under-

scored each line slowly with her thimbled finger. Everybody

else in the post office wondered what was up now.

"What will Lily say," beamed Mrs. Carson, "when we tell

her we're sending her to Ellisville!"

"She'll be tickled to death," said Mrs. Watts, "Lily

Daw's getting in at Ellisville!"

"Don't you all dare go off and tell Lily without me!" called

Aimee Slocum.

"Do you suppose they'll look after her down there?" Mrs.

Carson began to carry on a conversation with a group of Baptist

ladies waiting in the post office. She was the Baptist preacher'swife.

"I've always heard it was lovely down there, but crowded,"

said one.

"Lily lets people walk over her so," said another.

"Last night at the tent show--" said another, and then

popped her hand over her mouth.

"Don't mind me, I know there are such things in the world,"

said Mrs. Carson.

"Oh, Mrs. Carson. Well, anyway, last night at the tent

show, why, the man was just before making Lily buy a ticketto get in."

"A ticket!"

"Till my husband went up and explained she wasn't bright,

and so did everybody else."

"Oh, it was a very nice show," said the lady who had gone.

"And Lily acted so nice. She was a perfect lady--just set inher seat and stared."

"Oh, she can be a lady--she can be," said Mrs. Carson.

"That's just what breaks your heart."

180

"Yes'm, she kept her eyes on--what's that thing makes all

the commotion?--the xylophone," said the lady. "Didn't turn

her head to the right or to the left the whole time. Set in

front of me."

"The point is, what did she do after the show?" asked Mrs.

Watts. "Lily has gotten so she is very mature for her age."

"Oh, Etta!" protested Mrs. Carson.

"And that's how come we are sending her to Ellisville,"finished Mrs. Watts.

"I'm ready, you all," said Aimee Slocum. "Mail's up.I don't know how good it's up."

"Well, of course, I do hope it's for the best," said

several of the other ladies. They did not go at once to take

their mail out of their boxes; they felt a little left out.

The three women stood at the foot of the water tank.

"To find Lily is a different thing," said Aimee Slocum.

"Where in the wide world do you suppose she'd be?" It

was Mrs. Watts who was carrying the letter.

"I don't see a sign of her either on this side of the

street or on the other side," Mrs. Carson declared.

Ed Newton was stringing Redbird school tablets on the

wire across the store.

"If you're after Lily, she come in here while ago andtole me she was fixin' to git married," he said.

"Ed Newton!" cried the ladies all together. Mrs. Watts

began to fan herself at once with the letter from Ellisville.

She wore widow's black, and the least thing made her hot.

"Why she is not. She's going to Ellisville, Ed," said

Mrs. Carson gently. "Mrs. Watts and I and Aimee Slocum are

paying her way out of our own pockets. Besides, the boys of

Victory are on their honor. Lily's not going to get married,that's just an idea she's got in her head."

When they came to the bridge over the railroad tracks,

there was Estelle Mabers, sitting on a rail. She was slowlydrinking an orange Ne-Hi.

"Have you seen Lily?" they asked her.

181

"I'm supposed to be out here watching for her now," said

the Mabers girl. "But for Jewel--Jewel says Lily come in the

store while ago and picked out a two-ninety-eight hat and wore

it off. Jewel wants to swap her something else for it."

"Oh, Estelle, Lily says she's going to get married!" cried

Aimee Slocum.

"Well, I declare," said Estelle.

Loralee Adkins came riding by in her Willys-Knight, tootingthe horn to find out what they were talking about.

Aimee threw up her hands and ran out into the street."Loralee, Loralee, you got to ride us up to Lily Daws'. She'sup yonder fixing to get married!"

"Well, that just goes to show you right now," said Mrs.Watts. "What we've got to do is persuade Lily it will benicer to go to Ellisville."

"Just to think!"

While they rode around the corner Mrs. Carson was goingon in her sad voice, sad as the soft noises in the hen houseat twilight. "We buried Lily's poor defenseless mother. Wegave Lily all her food and kindling and every stitch she hadon. Sent her to Sunday school to learn the Lord's teachings,had her baptized a Baptist. And when her old father commencedbeating her and tried to cut her head off with the butcherknife, why, we went and took her away from him and gave hera place to stay."

The paintless frame house with all the weather vanes wasthree stories high in places and had yellow and violet stained-glass windows in front and gingerbread around the porch. Itleaned steeply to one side, toward the railroad, and the frontsteps were gone. The car full of ladies drew up under thecedar tree.

"Now Lily's almost grown up," Mrs. Carson continued. "Infact, she's grown."

"Talking about getting married," said Mrs. Watts dis-gustedly.

They climbed over the dusty zinnias onto the porch and

walked through the open door without knocking.

"There certainly is always a funny smell in this house.I say it every time I come," said Aimee Slocum.

182

Lily was there, in the dark of the hall, kneeling on the

floor by a small open trunk.

When she saw them she put a zinnia in her mouth, and held

still.

"Hello, Lily," said Mrs. Carson reproachfully.

"Hello," said Lily. In a minute she gave a suck on the

zinnia stem that sounds exactly like a jay bird. There she

sat, wearing a petticoat for a dress, one of the things Mrs.Carson kept after her about. Her milky-yellow hair streamed

freely down from under a new hat. You could see the wavyscar on her throat if you knew it was there.

Mrs. Carson and Mrs. Watts, the two fattest, sat in thedouble rocker. Aimee Slocum sat on the wire chair donatedfrom the drugstore that burned.

"Well, what are you doing, Lily?" asked Mrs. Watts.

Lily smiled.

The trunk was old and lined with yellow and brown paper,

with an asterisk pattern showing in darker circles and rings.It was empty except for two bars of soap and a green washcloth,which Lily was now trying to arrange in the bottom.

"Go on and tell us what you're doing, Lily," said Aimee

Slocum.

"Packing, silly," said Lily.

"Where are you going?"

"Going to get married, and I bet you wish you was me now,"said Lily. But shyness overcame her suddenly, and she poppedthe zinnia back into her mouth.

"Talk to me, dear," said Mrs. Carson. "Tell old Mrs.Carson why you want to get married."

"No," said Lily, after a moment's hesitation.

"Well, we've thought of something that will be so muchnicer," said Mrs. Carson. "Why don't you go to Ellisville!"

"Won't that be lovely?" said Mrs. Watts. "Goodness, yes."

"It's a lovely place," said Aimee Slocum uncertainly.

"You've got bumps on your face," said Lily.

183

"Aimee, dear, you stay out of this, if you don't mind,"

said Mrs. Carson anxiously. "I don't know what it is comes

over Lily when you come around her."

"There! Wouldn't you like to go to Ellisville now?" asked

Carson.

"No'm," said Lily.

"Why not?" All the ladies leaned down toward her in im-

pressive astonishment.

"'Cause I'm goin' to get married," said Lily.

"Well, and who are you going to marry, dear?" asked Mrs.

Watts. She knew how to pin people down and make them deny

what they'd already said.

Lily bit her lip and began to smile. She reached into

the trunk and held up both cakes of soap and wagged them.

"Tell us," challenged Mrs. Watts. "Who you're going to

marry, now."

"A man last night."

There was a gasp from each lady. The possible reality of

a lover descended suddenly like a summer hail over their heads.

Mrs. Watts stood up and balanced herself.

"One of those show fellows! A musician!" she cried.

"Did he--did he do anything to you?"

"Oh, yes'm," said Lily. She patted the cakes of soap

fastidiously with the tips of her small fingers and tucked

them in with the washcloth.

"What?" demanded Aimee Slocum. "What?"

"Don't ask her what," said Mrs. Carson. "Tell me, Lily--

just yes or no --are you the same as you were?"

"He had a red coat," said Lily graciously. "He took little

sticks and went ping-pong! ding-dong!"

"Oh, I think I'm going to faint," said Aimee Slocum, but

they said, "No, you're not."

"The xylophone!" cried Mrs. Watts. "The xylophone player!

Why, the coward, he ought to be run out of town on a rail!"

"Out of town? He is out of town, by now," cried Aimee.

"Can't you read?--the sign in the cafe--Victory on the ninth,

Como on the tenth? He's in Como. Como!"

184

"All right! We'll bring him back!" cried Mrs. Watts."He can't get away from me!"

"Hush," said Mrs. Carson. "I don't think it's any usefollowing that line of reasoning at all. It's better in thelong run for him to be gone out of our lives for good and all.That kind of man. He was after Lily's body alone and hewouldn't ever in this world make the poor little thing happy,even if we went out and forced him to marry her like he ought--at the point of a gun."

"Still--" began Aimee.

"Shut up," said Mrs. Watts. "Mrs. Carson, you're right,I expect."

"This is my hope chest-see?"said Lily politely. "Youhaven't even looked at it. I've already got soap and a washrag.And I have my hat--on. What are you all going to give me?"

"Lily," said Mrs. Watts, "we'll give you lots of gorgeousthings if you'll only go to Ellisville instead of getting mar-ried."

"What will you give me?" asked Lily.

"I'll give you a pair of hemstitched pillow-cases," saidMrs. Carson.

"I'll give you a big caramel cake," said Mrs. Watts.

"I'll give you a souvenir from Jackson--a little toy

bank," said AimeeSlocum. "Now will you go?"

"No," said Lily.

"I'll give you a pretty little Bible with your name onit in real gold," said Mrs. Carson.

"What if I was to give you a pink crepe de Chine brassierewith adjustable shoulder straps?" asked Mrs. Watts grimly.

"Oh, Etta."

"Well, she needs it," said Mrs. Watts. "What would

they think if she ran all over Ellisville in a petticoat?"

"I wish I could go to Ellisville," said Aimee Slocum luringly.

"What will they have for me down there?" asked Lily softly.

"Oh! lots of things. You'll have baskets to weave, Iexpect. . . ." Mrs. Carson looked vaguely at the others.

185

"Oh, yes indeed, they will let you make all sorts ofbaskets," said Mrs. Watts; then her voice too trailed off.

"No'm, I'd rather get married," said Lily.

"Lily Daw! Now that's just plain stubbornness!" criedMrs. Watts. "You almost said you'd go and then you took itback!"

"We've all asked God, Lily," said Mrs. Carson finally,"and God seemed to tell us--Mr. Carson, too--that the placewhere you ought to be, so as to be happy, was Ellisville."

"We've really just got to get her there--now!" screamedAimee Slocum. "Suppose!--She can't stay here!"

"Oh, no, no, no," said Mrs. Carson hurriedly. "We mustn'tthink that."

"Could I take my hope chest--to go to Ellisville?" askedLily shyly.

"Why, yes," said Mrs. Carson blankly.

"All the time it was just her hope chest," Aimee whispered.

"It's settled!"

"Praise the fathers," murmured Mrs. Carson.

Lily looked up at them, and her eyes gleamed. She cockedher head and spoke out in a proud imitation of someone--someoneutterly unknown.

"O.K. -- Toots!"

The ladies had been nodding and smiling and backing awaytoward the door.

"I think I'd better stay," said Mrs. Carson. "Where--wherecould she have learned that terrible expression?"

"Pack up," said Mrs. Watts. "Lily Daw is leaving for El-lisville on Number One."

In the station the train was puffing. Nearly everyone inVictory was hanging around waiting for it to leave. The VictoryCivic Band had assembled without any orders and was scatteredthrough the crowd. Ed Newton gave false signals to start onhis brass horn. A crate full of baby chickens got loose on theplatform. Everybody wanted to see Lily all dressed up, but Mrs.Carson and Mrs. Watts had sneaked her into the train from theother side of the tracks.

186

The two ladies were going to travel as far as Jacksonto help Lily change trains and be sure she went in the rightdirection.

Lily sat between them on the plush seat with her haircombed and pinned up into a knot under a small blue hat whichwas Jewel's exchange for the pretty one. She wore a travellingdress made out of part of Mrs. Watts's last summer's mourning.Pink straps glowed through. She had a purse and a Bible anda warm cake in a box, all in her lap.

Aimee Slocum had been getting the outgoing mail stampedand bundled. She stood in the aisle of the coach now, tearsshaking from her eyes.

"Good-bye, Lily," she said.

"Good-bye, silly," said Lily.

"Oh, dear, I hope they get our telegram to meet her inEllisville!" Aimee cried sorrowfully. "And it was so hard toget it all in ten words, too."

"Get off, Aimee, before the train starts and you breakyour neck," said Mrs. Watts. "I declare, it's so hot, assoon as we get a few miles out of town I'm going to slip mycorset down."

"Oh, Lily, don't cry down there. Just be good, and dowhat they tell you--it's all because they love you." Aimeedrew her mouth down.

Lily laughed. She pointed across Mrs. Carson's bosomout the window toward a man. He had stepped off the trainand just stood there, by himself. He was a stranger, andwore a cap.

"Look," she said, laughing softly.

"Don't-+look," said Mrs. Carson very distinctly. Sheadded, "Don't look at anything till you get to Ellisville."

Outside, Aimee Slocum was crying so hard she almostran into the stranger. He wore a cap and was short andseemed to have on perfume, if such a thing could be.

"Could you tell me, madam," he said, "where a littlelady lives in this burg named of Miss Lily Daw?" He liftedhis cap--and he had red hair.

"What do you want to know for?" Aimee asked.

187

"Talk louder," said the stranger.

"She's gone away--she's gone to Ellisville!"

"Gone?"

"Gone to Ellisville!"

"Well, I like that!" The man stuck out his bottom lipand puffed till his hair jumped.

"What business did you have with Lily?" cried Aimee sud-denly.

"We was only going to get married, that's all," said theman.

Aimee Slocum started to scream in front of all thosepeople. She almost pointed to the long black box she sawlying on the ground at the man's feet. Then she jumped backin fright.

"The xylophone! The xylophone!" she cried, looking backand forth from the man to the hissing train. Which was moreterrible? The bell began to ring hollowly, and the man wastalking.

"Did you say Ellisville? That in the state of Mississippi?"Like lightning he had pulled out a red notebook entitled, "Per-manent Facts & Data." "I don't hear well."

Under "Ellis-Ville Miss" he was drawing a line; now hewas flicking it with two little marks. "Maybe she didn'tsay she would. Maybe she said she wouldn't. Women!--Well,if we play anywheres near Ellisville, Miss., in the future Imay look her up and I may not," he said.

The bass horn sounded the true signal for the band to begin.White steam rushed out of the engine. Usually the train stoppedfor only a minute in Victory, but the engineer knew Lily fromwaving at her, and he knew this was her big day.

"Wait!" Aimee Slocum did scream. "Wait, mister! I canget her for you. Wait, Mister Engineer! Don't go!"

"The xylophone player! The xylophone player to marryher! Yonder he is!"

"Nonsense," murmured Mrs. Watts. "If he's there I don'tsee him. Where is he? You're looking at One-Eye Beasley."

"The little man with the cap--no, with the red hair!Hurry!"

188

"Is that really him?" Mrs. Carson asked Mrs. Watts in

wonder. "Mercy! He's small, isn't he?"

"Never saw him before in my life!" cried Mrs. Watts.

"Come on! This is a train we're on!" cried Aimee Slocum.

"All right, don't have a conniption fit, girl," said Mrs.

Watts. "Come on," she said thickly to Mrs. Carson.

"Where are we going now?" asked Lily.

"We're taking you to get married," said Mrs. Watts.

"Mrs. Carson, you'd better phone up your husband right there

in the station."

"But I don't want to git married," said Lily, beginning

to whimper. "I'm going to Ellisville."

"Hush, and we'll all have some ice-cream cones later,"

whispered Mrs. Carson.

Just as they climbed down the steps at the back end of

the train, the band went into "Independence March."

The xylophone player was still there, patting his foot.

He came up and said, "Hello, Toots. What's up--tricks?" and

kissed Lily with a smack, after which she hung her head.

"So you're the young man we've heard so much about," said

Mrs. Watts. "Here's your little Lily."

"My husband happens to be the Baptist preacher of Victory,"

said Mrs. Carson in a loud, clear voice. "Isn't that lucky?

I can get him here in five minutes; I know exactly where he is."

They were in a circle around the xylophone player, all

going into the white waiting room.

"Oh, I feel just like crying, at a time like this," said

Aimee Slocum. She looked back and saw the train moving slowly

away, going under the bridge at Main Street. Then it disappearedaround the curve.

"Oh, the hope chest!" Aimee cried in a stricken voice.

"And whom have we the pleasure of addressing?" Mrs. Watts

was shouting.

The band went on playing. Some of the people thought

Lily was on the train, and some swore she wasn't. Everybody

cheered, though, and a straw hat was thrown into the telephonewires.

189

APPENDIX H--READERS THEATRE SCRIPT

"LILY DAW AND THE THREE LADIES"by

Eudora Welty

Narr. 1:

Carson:

Watts:

Slocum:

Carson:

Narr. 2:

Mrs. Watts and Mrs. Carson were both in the post

office in Victory when the letter came from the

Ellisville Institute for the Feeble-Minded of

Mississippi. Aimee Slocum, with her hand still

full of mail, ran out in front and handed it straight

to Mrs. Watts, and they all three read it together.

Mrs. Watts held it taut between her pink hands,

and Mrs. Carson underscored each line slowly with

her thimbled finger. Everybody else in the post

office wondered what was up now.

What will Lily say when we tell her we're sending

her to Ellisville!

She'll be tickled to death. Lily Daw's getting in

at Ellisville!

Don't you all dare go off and tell Lily without me!

Do you suppose they'll look after her down there?

Mrs. Carson began to carry on a conversation with

a group of Baptist ladies waiting in the post of-

fice. She was the Baptist Preacher's wife. "I've

always heard it was lovely down there, but crowded,"

said one. "Lily lets people walk over her so,"

said another. "Last night at the tent show--" said

another, and then popped her hand over her mouth.

190

Carson: Don't mind me, I know there are such things in

the world.

Narr. 2: "Oh, Mrs. Carson. Well, anyway, last night at

the tent show, why, the man was just before making

Lily buy a ticket to get in."

Carson, Watts, Slocum: A ticket!

Narr. 2: "Till my husband went up and explained she wasn't

bright, and so did everybody else." "Oh, it was

a very nice show," said the lady who had gone.

"And Lily acted so nice. She was a perfect lady--

just set in her seat and stared."

Carson: Oh, she can be a lady--she can be. That's just

what breaks your heart.

Narr. 2: "Yes m, she kept her eyes on--what's that thing

makes all the commotion?--the xylophone. Didn't

turn her head to the right or to the left the whole

time. Set in front of me."

Watts: The point is, what did she do after the show?

Lily has gotten so she is very mature for her age.

Carson: Oh, Etta!

Watts: And that's how come we are sending her to Ellis-

ville.

Slocum: I'm ready, you all. Mail's up. I don't know how

good it's up.

Narr. 2: "Well, of course, I do hope it's for the best,"

said several of the other ladies. They did not

got at once to take their mail out of their boxes;

they felt a little left out.

191

Narr. 1;

Slocum:

Watts:

Carson:

Narr. 1:

All;

Narr. 2:

Carson:

Narr. 1:

All:

Narr. 2:

The three women stood at the foot of the water

tank.

To find Lily is a different thing.

Where in the wide world do you suppose she'd be?

I don't see a sign of her either on this side of

the street or on the other side.

Ed Newton was stringing Redbird school tablets

on the wire across the store. "If you're after

Lily, she came in here while ago and tole me she

was fixin' to git married."

Ed Newton!

Mrs. Watts began to fan herself at once with the

letter from Ellisville. She wore widow's black,

and the least thing made her hot.

Why she is not. She's going to Ellisville, Ed.

Mrs. Watts and I and Aimee Slocum are paying her

way out of our own pockets. Besides, the boys

of Victory are on their honor. Lily's not going

to get married, that's just an idea she's got in

her head.

When they came to the bridge over the railroad

tracks, there was Estelle Mabers, sitting on a

rail. She was slowly drinking an orange Ne-Hi.

Have you seen Lily?

"I'm supposed to be out here watching for her now."

"But for Jewel--Jewel says Lily come in the store

while ago and picked out a two-ninety-eight hat

192

Slocum:

Narr. 2:

Narr. 1:

Slocum:

Watts:

Narr. 2:

Carson:

Narr. 1:

and wore it off. Jewel wants to swap her some-

thing else for it."

Oh, Estelle, Lily says she's going to get married!

"Well, I declare."

Loralee Adkins came riding by in her Willys-Knight,

tooting the horn to find out what they were talking

about.

Aimee threw up her hands and ran out into the

street.

Loralee, Loralee, you got to ride us up to Lily

Daws'. She's up yonder fixing to get married!

Well, that just goes to show you right now. What

we've got to do is persuade Lily it will be nicer

to go to Ellisville. Just to think!

While they rode around the corner Mrs. Carson was

going on in her sad voice, sad as the soft noises

in the hen house at twilight.

We buried Lily's poor defenseless mother. We

gave Lily all her food and kindling and every

stitch she had on. Sent her to Sunday school

to learn the Lord's teachings had her baptized

a Baptist. And when her old father commenced

beating her and tried to cut her head off with

the butcher knife, why, we went and took her away

from him and gave her a place to stay.

The paintless frame house with all the weather

vanes was three stories high in places and had

193

Carson:

Watts:

Narr. 1:

Slocum:

Narr. 2:

Carson:

Narr. 2:

yellow and violet stained-glass windows in front

and gingerbread around the porch. It leaned

steeply to one side, toward the railroad, and the

front steps were gone. The car full of ladies

drew up under the cedar tree.

Now Lily's almost grown up. In fact, she's grown.

Talking about getting married.

They climbed over the dusty zinnias onto the porch

and walked through the open door without knocking.

There certainly is always a funny smell in this

house. I say it every time I come.

Lily was there, in the dark of the hall, kneeling

on the floor by a small open trunk.

When she saw them she put a zinnia in her mouth,

and held still.

Hello, Lily.

"Hell," said Lily. In a minute she gave a suck on

the zinnia stem that sounded exactly like a jay

bird. There she sat, wearing a petticoat for a

dress, one of the things Mrs. Carson kept after

her about. Her milky-yellow hair streamed freely

down from under a new hat. You could see the wavy

scar on her throat if you knew it was there.

Mrs. Carson and Mrs. Watts, the two fattest,

sat in the double rocker. Aimee Slocum sat on

the wire chair donated from the drugstore that

burned.

194

Watts:

Narr. 1:

Slocum:

Narr. 2:

Slocum:

Narr. 2:

Carson:

Narr. 2:

Carson:

Watts:

Slocum:

Narr. 2:

Carson:

Narr. 2:

All:

Well, what are you doing, Lily?

Lily smiled.

The trunk was old and lined with yellow and

brown paper, with an asterisk pattern showing in

darker circles and rings. Its was empty except

for two bars of soap and a green washcloth, which

Lily was now trying to arrange in the bottom.

Go on and tell us what you're doing, Lily.

"Packing, silly."

Where are you going?

"Going to get married, and I bet you wish you was

me now," But shyness overcame her suddenly, and

she popped the zinnia back into her mouth.

Talk to me, dear. Tell old Mrs. Carson why you

want to get married.

"No," said Lily, after a moment's hesitation.

Well, we've thought of something that will be

so much nicer. Why don't you go to Ellisville!

Won't that be lovely? Goodness, yes.

It's a lovely place.

"You've got bumps on your face."

Aimee, dear, you stay out of this, if you don't

mind. I don't know what it is comes over Lily

when you come around her. There! Wouldn't you

like to go to Ellisville now?

"No'm "

Why not?

195

Narr. 2:

Watts:

Narr. 1:

Watts:

Narr. 2:

Narr. 1:

Watts:

Narr.

Narr.

2:

1:

Slocum:

Carson:

Narr. 2:

Slocum:

All:

"'Cause I'm goin' to get married."

Well, and who are you going to marry, dear?

Mrs. Watts knew how to pin people down and make

them deny what they'd already said.

Lily bit her lip and began to smile. She

reached into the trunk and held up both cakes

of soap and wagged them.

Tell us who you're going to marry, now.

"A man last night."

There was a gasp from each lady. The possible

reality of a lover descended suddenly like a sum-

mer hail over their heads. Mrs. Watts stood up

and balanced herself.

One of those show fellows! A musician! Did he--

did he do anything to you?

"Oh, yes'm."

She patted the cakes of soap fastidiously with the

tips of her small fingers and tucked them in with

the washcloth.

What? What?

Don't ask her waht. Tell me, Lily--just yes or no--

are you the same as you were?

"He has a red coat." "He took little sticks and

went ping-pong! ding-dong!"

Oh, I think I'm going to faint.

No, you're not.

196

Watts:

Slocum:

Watts:

Carson:

Slocum:

Watts:

Narr. 2:

Watts:

Narr. 2:

Carson:

Watts:

The xylophone! The xylophone player! Why the

coward, he ought to be run out of town on a rail!

Out of town? He is out of town, by now. Can't

you read?--the sign in the cafe--Victory on the

ninth, Como on the tenth? He's in Como. Como!

All right! We'll bring him back! He can't get

away from me!

Hush. I don't think it's any use following that

line of reasoning at all. It's better in the

long run for him to be gone out of our lives for

good and all. That kind of a man. He was after

Lily's body alone and he wouldn't ever in this

world make the poor little thing happy, even if

we went out and forced him to marry her like he

ought--at the point of a gun.

Still--

Shut up. Mrs. Carson, you're right, I expect.

"This is my hope chest--see? You haven't even

looked at it. I've already got soap and a wash-

rag. And I have my hat--on. What are you all

going to give me?"

Lily, we'll give you lots of gorgeous things if

you'll only go to Ellisville instead >of getting

married.

"What will you give me?"

I'll give you a pair of hemstitched pillowcases.

I'll give you a big caramel cake.

197

Slocum: I'll give you a souvenir from Jackson-'a little

toy bank. Now will you go?

Narr. 2: "No."

Carson: I'll give you a pretty little Bible with your name

on it in real gold.

Watts: What if I was to give you a pink crepe de Chine

brassiere with adjustable shoulder straps?

Slocum and Carson: Oh, Etta.

Watts: Well, she needs it. What would they think if she

ran all over Ellisville in a petticoat.

Slocum: I wish I could go to Ellisville.

Narr. 2: "What will they have for me down there?"

Carson: Oh! lots of things. You'll have baskets to weave,

I expect. . . .

Watts: Oh, yes indeed, they will let you make all sorts

of baskets.

Narr. 2: "No'm, I'd rather get married."

Watts: Lily Daw! Now that's just plain stubbornness!

You almost said you'd go and then you took it

back!

Carson: We've all asked God, Lily, and God seemed to tell

us--Mr. Carson, too--that the place where you ought

to be, so as to be happy, was Ellisville.

Slocum: We've really just got to get her there--now! Sup-

pose--! She can't stay here!

Carson: Oh, no, no, no. We mustn't think that.

198

Narr. 2:

Carson:

Slocum:

Watts:

Carson:

Narr. 2:

Narr. 1:

Carson:

Watts:

Narr. 1:

"Could I take my hope chest--to go to Ellisville?"

asked Lily shyly.

Why, yes.

All the time it was just her hope chest.

It's settled!

Praise the fathers.

Lily looked up at them, and her eyes gleamed. She

cocked her head and spoke out in a proud imitation

of someone--someone utterly unknown. "O.K.--Toots!"

The ladies had been nodding and smiling and backing

away toward the door.

I think I'd better stay. Where--where could she have

learned that terrible expression?

Pack up. Lily Daw is leaving for Ellisville on

Number One.

In the station the train was puffing. Nearly every-

one in Victory was hanging around waiting for it to

leave. The Victory Civic Band had assembled without

any orders and was scattered through the crowd. Ed

Newton gave false signals to start on his brass horn.

A crate full of baby chickens got loose on the plat-

form. Everybody wanted to see Lily all dressed up,

but Mrs. Carson and Mrs. Watts had sneaked her into

the train from the other side of the tracks.

The two ladies were going to travel as far as

Jackson to help Lily Change trains and be sure she

went in the right direction.

199

Slocum:

Narr. 2:

Slocum:

Watts:

Slocum:

Narr. 1:

Lily sat between them on the plush seat with

her hair combed and pinned up into a knot under

a small blue hat which was Jewel's exchange for

the pretty one. She wore a traveling dress made

out of part of Mrs. Watts's last summer's mourn-

ing. Pink straps glowed through. She had a purse

and a Bible and a warm cake in a box, all in her

lap.

Aimee Slocum had been getting the outgoing mail

stamped and bundled. She stood in the aisle of

the coach now, tears shaking from her eyes.

Good-bye, Lily.

"Good-bye, silly."

Oh, dear, I hope they get our telegram to meet her

in Ellisville! And it was so hard to get it all in

ten words, too.

Get off, Aimee, before the train starts and you

break your neck. I declare, it's so hot, as soon

as we get a few miles out of town, I'm going to

slip my corset down.

Oh, Lily, don't cry down there. Just be good, and

do what they tell you--it's all because they love

you.

Lily laughed. She pointed across Mrs. Carson's

bosom out the window toward a man. He had stepped

off the train and just stood there, by himself.

He was a stranger and wore a cap.

200

Narr. 2:

Carson:

Narr. 1:

Slocum:

Narr. 1:

Slocum:

Narr. 1:

Slocum:

Narr. 1:

Slocum:

Narr. 1:

Narr. 2:

Slocum:

Narr. 2:

"Look."

Don't--look. Don't look at anything till you get

to Ellisville.

Outside, Aimee Slocum was crying so hard she almost

ran into the stranger. He wore a cap and was short

and seemed to have on perfume, if such a thing could

be.

"Could you tell me, madam," he said, "where a

little lady lives in this burg name of Miss Lily

Daw?" He lifted his cap--and he had red hair.

What do you want to know for?

"Talk louder," said the stranger.

She's gone away--she's gone to Ellisville!

"Gone?"

Gone to Ellisville!

"Well, I like that!"

What business did you have with Lily?

"We was only going to get married, that's all,"

said the man.

Aimee Slocum started to scream in front of all

those people. She almost pointed to the long

black box she saw lying on the ground at the man's

feet. Then she jumped back in fright.

The xylophone! The xylophone!

Looking back and forth from the man to the hissing

train. Which was more terrible? The bell began to

ring hollowly, and the man was talking.

201

Narr. 1:

Narr. 2:

Slocum:

Watts:

Slocum:

Carson:

Watts;

Slocum;

"Did you say Ellisville? That in the state of

Mississippi?" Like lightning he had pulled out

a red notebook entitled, "Permanent Facts & Data."

"I don't hear well."

Under "Ellis-Ville Miss" he was drawing a line;

now he was flicking it with two little marks.

"Maybe she didn't say she would. Maybe she said

she wouldn't." "Women!--Well, if we play any-

wheres near Ellisville, Mississippi, in the future

I may look her up and I may not," he said.

The bass horn sounded the true signal for the band

to begin. White steam rushed out of the engine.

Usually the train stopped for only a minute in

Victory, but the engineer knew Lily from waving

at her, and he knew this was her big day.

Wait! Wait, mister! I can get her for you. Wait,

Mister Engineer! Don't go!

The xylophone player! The xylophone player to

marry her! Yonder he is!

Nonsense. If he's there I don't see him. Where is

he? You're looking at One-Eye Beasley.

The little man with the cap--no, with the red hair!

Hurry!

Is that really him?

Mercy! He's small, isn't he?

Never saw him before in my life!

Come on! This is a train we're on!

202

Watts:

Narr. 2:

Watts:

Narr. 2:

Carson:

Narr. 2:

Narr. 1:

Watts:

Carson:

Narr. 1:

Slocum:

Narr. 2:

All right, don't have a conniption fit, girl.

Come on.

"Where are we going now?" asked Lily.

We're taking you to get married. Mrs. Carson,

you'd better phone up your husband right there

in the station.

"But I don't want to git married," said Lily, be-

ginning to whimper. "I'm going to Ellisville."

Hush, and we'll all have some ice cream cones later.

Just as they climbed down the steps at the back end

of the train, the band went into "Independence March."

The xylophone player was still there, patting his

foot. He came up and said, "Hello, Toots. What's

up--tricks?" and kissed Lily with a smack, after

which she hung her head.

So you're the young man we've heard so much about.

Here's your little Lily.

My husband happens to be the Baptist preacher of

Victory. Isn't that lucky? I can get him here

in five minutes: I know exactly where he is.

They were in a circle around the xylophone player,

all going into the white waiting room.

Oh, I feel just like crying, at a time like this.

She looked back and saw the train moving slowly

away, going under the bridge at Main Street. Then

it disappeared around the curve.

203

Slocum:

Watts:

Narr. 1:

Narr. 2:

Narr. 1:

Oh, the hope chest!

And whom have we the pleasure of addressing?

The band went on playing.

Some of the people thought Lily was on the train,

and some swore she wasn't.

Everybody cheered, though, and a straw hat was

thrown into the telephone wires.

204

APPENDIX I--TESTS FOR "LILY DAW AND THE THREE LADIES"

Name



The purpose of this study is to measure your feelings

toward the short story by having you judge it on a

series of scales. There are seven positions on each

scale. Please place an X in the box that best repre-sents your true impression on each scale. The middle

box is neutral.

Example: Happy :_:_:_:_:_: X:_: Sad

Slow :_:_: X : : : : : Fast

Story III

Lily Daw and the Three Ladies

1. Free : : : : : : Constrained2. Ugly : : Beautiful3. Calm : : : : : : : : Excitable

4. Positive : : : : : : : : Negative5. Timely : : Untimely6. Soft : : : : : : : : Hard7. Incomplete :~ ~: : : : : : : Complete8. Active : : : : : : : : Passive9. Serious : : : : : : : Humorous

10. Interesting : : : : : : : : Boring11. Dissonant : : : : : : : : Harmonious12. Rugged : Delicate

13. Sensitive : : : : : : : : Insensitive14. Heavy:: : Light15. Good : Bad16. Meaningless : : : : : : : : Meaningful17. Unsuccessful : : : : : : : : Successful18. Strong : : : : : : : : Weak19. Unpleasant : : : : : : : : Pleasant20. Valuable : : : : : : : : Worthless

205

Name




"Lily Daw and the Three Ladies"

1. Mrs. Watts,Mrs. Carson, and Aimee Slocum werepaying Lily's way to

a. Ellisville, Mississippib. Victory, Mississippic. The Institute for the Feeble-Mindedd. both a and c

2. While Mrs Watts held the letter, Mrs. Carson under-scored each line

a. by drawing a straight line under each wordb. by flicking each line with two little marksc. with her thimbled fingerd. with her pink little finger

3. The lady who had seen Lily at the tent show des-cribed her behavior as

a. not bright--just set in her seat and staredb. so nicec. that of a perfect ladyd. both b and c

4. From Jewel's store Lily had taken

a. a Redbird school tabletb. two wash cloths and a bar of soapc. a Bible with gold lettersd. a two-ninety-eight cent hat

5. Willys Knight is the name of

a. the guy Lily is to marryb. the Baptist preacherc. the car the ladies rode to Lily's ind. none of the above

206

6. The frame house that Lily lived in

a. was paintless and leaned toward the post of-

ficeb. was two stories high with zinnias out front

c. had yellow and violet stained-glass windows

d. none of the above

7. The ladies found Lily

a. sucking on a zinnia stem

b. wearing a petticoatc. packing her hope chestd. all of the above

8. Instead of getting married, the ladies promised

Lily they would give her

a. a pair of hemstitched pillow-cases, big cara-

mel cake and a toy bank

b. a Bible with her name in gold, and a big cara-

mel cakec. both a and bd. none of the above

9. Lily always wore a

a. pink crepe de Chine brassiere

b. petticoat with adjustable shoulder straps

c. new hat over her milky-yellow hair


10. Lily's reward for getting off the train and gettingmarried was

a. some ice crean conesb. an orange Ne-Hic. the promise of baskets to weaved. none of the above

11. The stranger that Lily was to marry

a. had a long black box and seemed to wear perfume

b. had on a cap over his red hairc. said he didn't hear welld. all of the above

12. The phrase that Lily Daw picked up from the strangerwas

a. ping-pong, ding-dongb. O.K. Tootsc. both of the aboved. none of the above

207

13. The man Lily was to marry

a. wrote a note book entitled "Permanent Facts

and Data"b. played in the tent showc. was a musiciand. all of the above

14. As the story begins, Mrs. Watts and Mrs. Carson

are waiting for Aimee Slocum to bring

a. a letterb. a ten-word telegramc. the Baptist ladiesdo both b and c

15. While waiting for Lily to leave

a. the number: one was puffing from the engineer's

one minute stopb, the Victory Civic Band assembled

c. the crate full of baby chickens got loose and

Aimee Slocum almost faintedd. all of the above

208

APPENDIX J--COMPREHENSIVE TEST

Name


The purpose of this test is to measure your retention

of the short stories. Please circle the correct answer.

1. Mrs. Fletcher thought her hair was falling out

a. from the last permanent when Leota cooked herhair for fourteen minutes

b. because of the dandruff she caught from Mr.Fletcher

c. due to her physical conditiond. none of the above

2. Stella-Rondo's husband came to town taking

a. pose yourself photosb. a position at the P.O.c. money for add-a-pearl necklacesd. a job with Papa-Daddy

3. The ladies found Lily

a. sucking on a zinnia stemb. wearing a petticoatc. packing her hope chestd. all of the above

4. The stranger that Lily was to marry

a. had a long black box and seemed to wear perfumeb. had on a cap over his red hairc. said he didn't hear welld. all of the above

5. The reason Stella-Rondo came home was

a. to eat breast of chicken

b. to bring Shirley-Tc. because she separated from Mr. Whitakerd. because she was homesick

209

6. Leota met Fred when they were

a. in New Orleans and they were married in half an

hourb. in the rental library in Vicksburgc. in a rumble seat eight months agod. told by Madame Evangeline that they'd meet each

other in N.O.

7. As the story ends, the story-teller had not seen her

family for

a. five weeksb. five monthsc. five daysd. five hours

8. Leota is described in the story

a. as working in a booth with a lavender shelf and

lavender framed mirrorb. as having a black part with yellow curls

c. as having strong red-nailed fingersd. all of the above

9. While waiting for Lily to leave

a. the number one was puffing from the engineer'sone minute stop

b. the Victory Civic Band assembledc. the crate full of baby chickens got loose and

Aimee Slocum almost faintedd. all of the above

10. Papa Daddy refused to

a. get out of the hammockb. cut off his beardc. both of the aboved. none of the above

11. While Mrs. Watts held the letter, Mrs. Carson under-

scored each line

a. by drawing a straight line under each wordb. by flicking each line with two little marksc. with her thimbled fingerd. with her pink little finger

12. Mr. Petrie's true identity was discovered by Mrs.Pikein

a. Screen Secrets magazineb. Advice to the Lovelorn magazinec. Startling G-Man magazined. Life Is Like That magazine

210

13. Instead of getting married, the ladies promised Lilythey would give her

a. a pair of hemstitched pillow-cases, a big cara-

mel cake and a toy bankb. a Bible with her name in gold, and a big caramel

cakec. both a and bd. none of the above

14. Uncle Rondo appeared in the hall

a. in Stella-Rondo's kimonob. stating he was poisonedc. both of the aboved. none of the above

15. Stella-Rondo told

a. sister that Uncle Rondo looked like a fool

b. Uncle Rondo that sister said he looked like a

foolc. Papa Daddy that sister said he ought to cut

off his beardd. all of the above

16. Mrs. Montjoy came for her shampoo and set

a. the day before she had her babyb. an hour and twenty minutes before she had a son

c. with her bags packed and her husband waitingoutside in the car

d. both b and c

17. Mrs. Fletcher was noticed as being pregnant when

a. she wore a Stork-a-lure figured printb. she went into the drug store

c. Leota and Mrs. Pike were in the 1939 Dodged. both b and c

18. Lily always wore a

a. pink crepe de Chine brassiereb. petticoat with adjustable shoulder-strapsc. new hat over her milky-yellow hair


19. The holiday on which the story happens is

a. The Fourth of Julyb. Christmasc. Labor Dayd. Thanksgiving

211

20. Mrs. Fletcher could give her curiosity its freedom

a. because she was hidden in curling fluid and

henna packsb. because she was separated by a swing-door from

the other customersc. both a and bd. none of the above

21. From Jewel's store Lily had taken

a. a Redbird school tabletb. two wash cloths and a bar of soap

c. a Bible with gold lettersd. a two ninety-eight cent hat

22. The story teller of this story is known to her familyas

a. Shirley-Tb. Sisterc. Stella-Rondod. Mama

23. Willys Knight is the name of

a. the guy Lily is to marryb. the Baptist preacherc. the car the ladies drove to Lily's in


24. Mrs. Pike did not like the petrified man

a. because he was 12 or 14 years older than she was

b. because his joints were turned to stone and he

could only move a quarter of an inch

c. because she liked a man to be a good dresser

d. because she like grey haired men

25. Mrs. Fletcher told Leota that

a. she didn't like children that much

b. she hadn't told Mr. Fletcher she was'pregnant yet

c. she was almost tempted not to have this oned. all of the above

26. Mrs. Watts, Mrs. Carson, and Aimee Slocum were pay-

ing Lily's way to

a. Ellisville, Mississippib. Victory, Mississippic. The Institute for the Feeble-Mindedd. both a and c

212

27. Billy Boy was

a. making tents with aluminum wave pinchers on the

floor under the sinkb. only three years oldc. told he shouldn't try on ladies' hats

d. all of the above

28. Stella-Rondo and Shirley-T are related to eachother as

a. Stella-Rondo is to Sisterb. Sister is to Mamac. Mamais to Stella-Rondod. none of the above

29. The man Lily was to marry

a. wrote in a note book entitled "Permanent Facts

and Data"b. played in the tent showc. was a musiciand. all of the above

30. Uncle Rondo woke sister up at 6:30 in the morningby

a. giving a horrible yellb. sounding as if he was mortally woundedc. saying he was poisonedd. none of the above

31. Mrs. Fletcher was told by Leota that

a. one of Thelma's ladies said she was p-r-e-g

b. Mrs. Hutchinson looks straight through you andthen spits at you

c. both a and bd. none of the above

32. When sister moved into the P.O. she

a. took the radio, sewing machine motor and ironingboard

b. arranged everything cater-corneredc. took the hand quilts, step-ladder, and army cot

d. both a and b

33. The lady who had seen Lily at the tent show describedher behavior as

a. not bright--just set in her seat and staredb. so nicec. that of a perfect ladyd. both b and c

213

34. The story is set in

a. China Tree, Mississippib. China Grove, LouisianaC. China Tree, Louisianad. China Grove, Mississippi

35. The traveling freak show was

a. where the discovery of the petrified man tookplace

b. located in a vacant store next door

c. the home of the pygmie twinsd. none of the above

36. Shirley-T was

a. a nickname for Shirley Templeb. two years oldc. said to be adoptedd. all of the above

37. Mr. Petrie was wanted for

a. raping three women in Californiab. five hundred dollars rewardc. letting people think he was petrifiedd. both a and b

38. The frame house that Lily lived in

a. was paintless and leaned toward the post of-fice

b. was two stories high with zinnias out front

c. had yellow and violet stained-glass windowsd. none of the above

39. As the story begins, Mrs. Watts and Mrs. Carsonare waiting for Aimee Slocum to bring

a. a letterb. a ten-word telegramc. the Baptist ladiesd. both b and c

40. When sister decided to leave, the family was

a. eating supperb. playing Old Maidc. shooting firecrackersd. none of the above

214

41. Leota describes Mrs. Pike as

a. a very decided blondeb. having a sharp eye outc. a good judge of character and cute as a minuted. all of the above

42. After Stella-Rondo got married, she got the pecul-

iar idea that

a. swinging in a hammock is bad luckb. a trousseau should not be worn in broad day-

lightc. it is cooler with the windows shut and lockedd. a separation makes you homesick

43. The phrase that Lily Daw picked up from the strangerwas

a. ping-pong, ding-dongb. O.K. Tootsc. both of the aboved. none of the above

44. Leota had promised Mrs. Pike

a. a free facial at noonb. she'd take her into the businessc. she'd comb out her hair since she was in the

business, so to speakd. none of the above

45. Lily's reward for getting off the train and gettingmarried was

a. some ice cream conesb. an orange Ne-Hic. the promise of baskets to weaved. none of the above

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215

216

Haas, Richard and David A. Williams, The Study of Oral Inter-pretation, Theory and Comment, In~ianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, Inc., 1975.

Hack, Clarence W., "A Supervisor Looks at the Teaching ofLiterature in the High School," Oral Interpretationandthe Teaching of English, edited by T.L. Fernandez,Champaign, Illinois, National Council of Teachers ofEnglish, 1969.

Hook, J.N., The Teaching of High School English, 4th ed.,New York,The Ronald Press Company, 1972.

, What Every English Teacher Should Know, Champaign,Illinois, National Council of Teachers of English, 1970.

Kerlinger, Fred N., Foundation of Behavioral Research: Edu-

cational and Psychological Inquiry, New York, Holt,Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1964.

Langer, Susanne, Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art, NewYork, Scribner, 1953.

Lee, Charlotte, Oral Interpretation, 4th ed., Boston, Hough-ton Miff lin Company, 1971.

Maclay, Joanna Hawkins, Readers Theatre: Toward a Grammarof Practice, New York, Random House, Inc., 1971.

Matthews, Dorothy, "The Uses of Oral Interpretation inDirecting and Motivating Outside Reading of HighSchool Students," in Oral Interpretation and theTeaching of English, edited by T.L. Fernandez, Cham-paign, Illinois, National Council of Teachers ofEnglish, 1969, 59-70.

McCurdy, Francis L., "Oral Interpretation as an Approach toLiterature," in Oral Interpretation and the Teachingof English, edited by T.L. Fernandez, Champaign, Illi-nois, National Council of Teachers of English, 1969,17-20.

Neville, Margaret, "Oral Interpretation as an Aid to theUnderstanding of Literature," in Oral Interpretationand the Teaching of English, edited by T.L. Fernandez,Champaign, Illinois, National Council of Teachers ofEnglish, 1969, 9-16.

Osgood, Charles Egerton, George J. Suci, and Percy H. Tan-nenbaum, The Measurement of Meaning, Urbana, Illinois,University of Illinois Press, 1959.

217

Popham, W. James, Educational Statistics, Use and Interpre-tation, New York, Harper and Row, Publishers, 1967.

Robb, Mary Margaret, Oral Interpretation of Literature, NewYork, Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1968.

Rolof f , Leland H., The Perception and Evocation of Literature,Glenville, Illinois, Scott, Foresman and Company, 1973.

Shaw, Marvin E. and Jack M. Wright, Scales for the Measure-ment of Attitudes, New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company,1967.

Snider, James G. and Charles E. Osgood, editors, SemanticDifferential Technique, A Sourcebook, Chicago, Illinois,Aldine Publishing Company, 1969.

Summers, Gene F., editor, Attitude Measurement, Chicago,Illinois, Rand McNally and Company, 1970.

Thompson, David W. and Virginia Fredricks, Oral Interpre-tation of Fiction, 2nd ed., Minneapolis, Burgess Pub-lishing Company, 1967.

Wallace, Karl J., et. al. (eds.), A History of Speech Edu-cation in America, New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts,1954.

Worrell, Elizabeth, "Readers Theatre and the Short Story,"in Oral Interpretation and the Teaching of English,edited by T.L. Fernandez, Champaign, Illinois, NationalCouncil of Teachers of English, 1969, 45-52.

Articles

Bacon, Wallace, "The Act of Interpretation," Oral English,I (Spring, 1972), 1-6.

Booth, George D. and Herbert R. Miller, "Effectiveness ofMonochrome and Color Presentations in FacilitatingAffective Learning," A V Communication Review, XX(Winter, 1974), 409-422.

Esolen, Gary, "Advantages of the Oral Study of Literature,"Oral English, I (Summer, 1972), 1-6.

Forrest, William and Neil Novelli, "About Oral English,"Oral English, I (Winter, 1972), 1-3.

"Getting Started With the Oral Study of Litera-ture, " Oral English, V (Fall, 1972), 1-17.

218

. "Orality and Literacy, Ancient and Modern: An

Interview with Eric Havelock," Oral English, II (Winter,1976), 1-9.

Fry, Edward, "Reliability Formula that Saves Time: Readabil-ity Graph," Journal of Reading, XL (April, 1968), 513-516.

Geiger, Don, "Performance as the Act of Understanding Liter-ature," Oral English, I (Spring, 1972), 13-14.

Kanner, J.H., "The Instructional Effectiveness of Color inTelevision: A Review of the Evidence," ERIC Clearing-house on Educational Media and Technology, 1968.

Loesch, Katharine T., "Towards an Ontology of Literature inPerformance," Oral English, I (Fall, 1972), 8-12.

Pooley, Robert C., "The English Teacher's Preparation inSpeech," The Speech Teacher, XXIX (September, 1956),186-193.

Report

Northeast High School, North Central Association Summary Reporton School and Community, North Little Rock, Arkansas,1976.

Unpublished Material

Colson, Ted, Elements in the Performance of Literature, unpub-lished manuscript,North Texas State~University, Denton,Texas, 1976.

Maberry, David R. , "A Comparison of Three Techniques of TeachingLiterature: Silent Reading, Solo Performance and ReadersTheatre;' Doctoral Dissertation, North Texas State Univer-sity, Denton, Texas, 1975.

Documents

SILENT READING, READERS THEATRE AND VIDEO .../67531/metadc501271/...3 79AI8dd A COMPARISON OF THREE TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING LITERATURE: SILENT READING, READERS THEATRE AND VIDEO-TAPE